CNGNow for all your compressed natural gas newsOne of the sites I follow every day is CNGNow. They do a great job keeping up with all the news about compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. The latest example is the story they featured from Tulsa World about Owasso accepting a $1.45 million federal stimulus grant to develop a CNG filling station. Some highlights from the article:
- Money will be distributed by the state to develop a CNG fueling facility and convert as many as 50 gasoline-powered city vehicles to CNG by March 2012.
- Cost of the fueling infrastructure will be $500,000, with the total cost of the conversion kits being $900,000. The design and engineering of the project is estimated at $50,000.
- Grant also includes $300,000 in matching funds for the purchase of property, with the matching amount to be generated from private donations.
- Conversion will cut Owasso’s fuel costs by 20 percent to 25 percent.
A picture of the portable fueling tank the Route 66 guys made.
CNGNow estimates that the United States operates about 1,100 of the 12,000 CNG stations in the world to power. These stations power only 150,000 of the estimated 10 million CNG vehicles worldwide. That’s only about 1.5 percent. Infrastructure is going to be paramount in developing CNG vehicles into a viable alternative to replace today’s automobiles. We can’t all construct our own portable filling stations like the guys from Route66. 
Let me know what you think of a CNG vehicle world in the comments below.
Dan,
I been a fan of T. Boone Pickens for years, and have recently gotten on the CNG band wagon. In fact, I agree it is the future of where our country needs to go regarding fuel.
With that said, where do you think the jobs will spring up for CNG. I want to make a transition and wondering if you have any insight to some companies I should direct my focus.
Thanks for any info.
Kevin D Powers