CNGNow for all your compressed natural gas news

August 3, 2010 by Dan Gibson· 1 Comment, leave one of your own
Filed under: Natural Gas

One 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.

CNG portable fueling station
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.

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Tags: vehicles

Natural Gas Market Indicators

July 30, 2010 by Chris McGill· Leave a Comment
Filed under: Natural Gas

Reasonably strong daily volumes of natural gas to power generators that reached 32 Bcf per day and more cut into storage injections during July, however, market price movements have remained docile. The hurricane season tends to be concentrated in late August and September, so the potential for supply disruptions is not over but the current NYMEX pricing strip points to price stability for the balance of the summer.

Regarding natural gas demand, natural gas to power generation and industries are both up over eight percent year-to-date in 2010 compared to 2009, remembering that ’09 demand went into the tank with the economic recession. Overall U.S. gas demand is up about 3.6 percent in 2010 but, as noted above, the slight surge in consumption has not upset current or near-term acquisition price expectations among indices and analysts.

Visit this link to download the full Natural Gas Market Indicator. Topics covered include: Reported Prices, Weather, Working Gas in Underground Storage, Natural Gas Production, Rig Counts, Pipeline Imports and Exports, and LNG Markets.

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Beating the Heat with Summer LIHEAP Action Day

July 29, 2010 by Jennifer O'Shea· 1 Comment, leave one of your own
Filed under: people

As we continue to experience record high temperatures throughout the country, it couldn’t be a better time than now to help bring attention to the critical need for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding. On July 28, along with the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and National Fuel Funds Network (NFFN), we hosted a Summer LIHEAP Action Day to build awareness about this valuable program that saves lives every year.

The purpose of the event was to bring together LIHEAP advocates and recipients from across the county to help convince Congress to fully fund LIHEAP at $5.1 billion for FY11 and encourage an increase to $7.6 billion as outlined in Rep. Ed Markey’s (D-MA) Energy Assistance for American Families Act. President Obama proposed LIHEAP funding for FY11 at a level of $3.3 billion, down from $5.1 billion in FY10 and FY09.

We also called on Congress to release the remaining 2010 LIHEAP contingency resources–$100 million—to help vulnerable Americans who cannot afford to cool their homes during these blazing summer months.

Throughout the day there were various activities, and one of the most exciting events was the press conference we hosted on Capitol Hill where we were fortunate to be joined by Congressman Gene Green and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Both from Texas, they certainly understand how high the mercury can rise, and how dangerous high temperatures can be for those without energy assistance. We were happy to have them with us to echo our calls for LIHEAP funding—for both heating and cooling.

You can see some of the photos of the press conference at the end of this post. You can see more photos from the day’s events on our Flickr stream.

Another highlight of Summer LIHEAP Action Day was when Dave Parker and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass) were presented with awards from NFFN. Dave Parker was awarded the Sister Pat Kelly Achievement Award, NFFN’s highest energy assistance recognition award. This award is given to individuals who have demonstrated superior achievements in goals set by NFFN: increasing public awareness and understanding of low-income energy issues; influencing energy-related policies beneficial to low-income people; assisting in the creation and development of fuel funds; promoting communication and coordination among parties concerned with low-income energy issues on national, regional, and statewide levels. Rep. Markey (D-Mass) was presented with The Extra Mile Award, which recognizes legislative achievement on behalf of LIHEAP.

Here are photos of Dave and Rep. Markey receiving these prestigious awards.

Rep. Markey (D-Mass) with The Extra Mile Award, which recognizes legislative achievement on behalf of LIHEAP. Dave Parker with the Sister Pat Kelly Achievement Award, NFFN’s highest energy assistance recognition award.

While the cold winter months seem distant as we read the temperatures these days, our next LIHEAP Action Day will be here before we know it. Make sure to mark your calendar for February 9, 2011 so you can join us in the nation’s capital as we continue to make sure LIHEAP funding is available for those who need it most.

And don’t forget to post your thoughts about LIHEAP below in the comments—we always like to hear how this great program is helping folks throughout the nation.