A new commitment to alternative fuel could be considered a victory for energy progress in San Antonio. This week, City officials were on-hand for the launch of the new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station, which will fuel a fleet of the City's automated garbage trucks and potentially provide a new energy alternative in the community. "This is a great day for San Antonio's commitment to energy investment," said Mayor Phil Hardberger. "The CNG facility will give us one of the largest natural gas municipal services in the state."

The new fleet of 30 CNG-powered trucks will preliminarily collect garbage and recyclables from nearly 75,000 homes in the northeast area of the city, explained Hardberger.

CPS Energy has been commissioned to supply the gas for the CNG station, located at the city's Solid Waste Management Department's Northeast Service Center at Toolyard Road. Recognized as one of the cleanest burning fuels available, CNG is also the same natural gas provided to San Antonio customers to cook with and heat their homes.

"We're excited about the potential to reduce air pollution and to serve our residents in a forward, energy-efficient way," added David McCary, director of San Antonio's Solid Waste Management Department.

Also present for the CNG station dedication was energy advocate, and chairman of BP Capital Management, T. Boone Pickens, who recently launched a national ad campaign in hopes of reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil sources. San Antonio worked on the station's design alongside Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a company founded by Pickens. Clean Energy has been contracted to help operate the CNG facility for five years.

The BP chairman issued applause for the City's commitment to the endeavor and its methods of using various resources to see the project through.

"Local governments are recognizing the important role they play to help reduce our foreign oil dependency through greater use of domestic resources such as natural gas," Pickens iterated, "I certainly praise San Antonio's leadership in that regard. This will lead to significant economic and environmental benefits long term that cannot be underestimated."

Pickens further detailed the fact that garbage collection vehicles are often very harmful to the environment as well as being uneconomical to operate.

"Aside from water, natural gas is one of the most readily available [re]source out there to use. It therefore follows that using natural gas is both logical and of minimal cost," said Pickens. "I applaud San Antonio's measures to take advantage of resources. In a time when we are in both an economic and energy crisis, we need to pool as many options as possible."

The City used both federal and state funding to develop the CNG station and vehicle cost including a national alternative vehicle credit program, by which tax credit savings were collected as a whole and went toward project construction. The City also procured a grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Pending on the success of the operation, the City could add both additional CNG-fueled refuse trucks and other CNG stations.

This technology has been used in municipal operations in various parts of the world, and has even been made available, in some instances, for individual vehicle fueling.

Copyright La Prensa San Antonio Jan 21, 2009

(c) 2009 La Prensa (San Antonio, Tex.). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.