Dan Gibson NGVsNow brings the sexy back to natural gas

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off


Yes, for all you kids out there, that is a Justin Timberlake reference. I am only slightly ancient.

The folks over at NGVsNow have put together a great tongue-in-cheek video touting the benefits of natural gas vehicles. They did such a good job that Wired actually picked up the story. My favorite line from the Wired story: “video got over 4,000 hits in the first 36 hours it was up and, unusually for YouTube, generated a nearly-intelligent discussion among commenters about the merits of natural gas as an alternative fuel.”


Head on over to NGVsnow.com to watch more videos. The site is packed with great information. I grabbed this off their facts page.

  • According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, only 1 percent of today’s natural gas consumption in the U.S. is currently used for vehicle fuel.
  • Natural gas can reduce greenhouse gas emissions for heavy-duty trucks, when compared to diesel powered vehicles, by 23 percent. Compared to diesel powered vehicles, using natural gas can reduce greenhouse gas emissions for passenger vehicles by 30 percent.
  • Natural gas engines reduce smog-producing pollutants by up to 90 percent and hydrocarbon emissions by 50-70 percent, compared to gasoline.
  • Converting one truck from diesel to natural gas is the equivalent of taking as many as 325 cars off the road in terms of pollution reduction.
  • Converting just 350,000 of the more than 2 million 18-wheelers on the road from burning imported diesel to running on domestic natural gas would create 420,000 jobs directly and add an additional 1.2 million jobs indirectly.
  • According to NGVAmerica, of the more than 10 million natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in operation around the world only about 130,000 NGVs — about 1.3 percent — are in the United States. The top five markets for NGVs are Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Iran and India.
  • Approximately 20 percent of public transit buses in the U.S. run on compressed natural gas (CNG). In Los Angeles alone there are more than 2,800 NGV buses in operation. States with the highest consumption of natural gas for transportation are California, New York, Texas, Georgia, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
  • NGVs have also become popular among many types of fleets besides public transportation, including taxi fleets, courier and delivery fleets, government and police fleets, community fleets, and trades and commercial fleets.
  • Natural Gas has an existing distribution infrastructure. With 1.5 million miles of gas pipe and distribution lines crisscrossing the country, natural gas is available to nearly every street and community in America.
  • An 18-wheeler uses up to 20,000 gallons of fuel per year. Replacing only 100,000 of these trucks with those powered by natural gas would immediately cut our consumption of diesel fuel up to 2 billion gallons per year.
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Dan Gibson Ryder Natural Gas Heavy Duty Truck Project Using $19.3 Million in Stimulus Funding

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off


Saw this release on the Ryder site and over at the Green Sustainable Supply Chain Management Blog. The San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG) Board has selected Ryder as its fleet partner in Southern California. Ryder will use $19.3 million in stimulus funding to implement the project. This is the first time that natural gas trucks will be deployed into a large commercial truck rental and leasing operation.

Key points from the release.

  • Ryder will purchase more than 200 heavy-duty natural gas powered trucks. The trucks will use both liquefied and compressed natural gas (LNG and CNG) on-board fuel storage systems depending upon the application of the truck purchased.
  • These ultra low-emission trucks will be deployed into Ryder’s Southern California operations network.
  • Ryder will construct new natural gas refueling stations within the region and utilize the existing natural gas refueling infrastructure already located throughout Southern California.
  • Ryder will maintain the vehicles at three of its strategically located maintenance shops in Orange, Rancho Dominguez, and Rancho Cucamonga. Each maintenance facility will be properly equipped for the indoor repair of natural gas vehicles.
  • In addition to reducing emissions, natural gas fuel prices are significantly and consistently lower than diesel fuel. Ryder customers using natural gas vehicles in their fleet have the opportunity for additional cost savings.
  • This project will replace more than 1.51 million gallons of diesel use annually with 100% domestically produced low-carbon liquefied and compressed natural gas.
  • According to SANBAG, preliminary project estimates and analysis indicate the project will contribute to the maintenance and creation of more than 400 U.S. green automotive jobs.
  • The project is also estimated to reduce more than 9.2 million pounds (4,195 metric tons) of greenhouse gas emissions per year, more than 131 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions annually and completely eliminate 2.65 tons of diesel particulate emissions from local neighborhoods.

This all sounds great, but I am still not helping my brother move again. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

100421.greenryder Ryder Natural Gas Heavy Duty Truck Project Using $19.3 Million in Stimulus Funding

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Dan Gibson Natural gas on your radio

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Dan Gibson | 4 Comments


Last week we posted some public service announcements that Chris McGill did over on aga.org. We had a good time doing them and they turned out really well. They include some great tips on how to make your home more efficient and make the world a greener place. Take a moment to check them out, they’re well worth the listen.

100503.angaaudio Natural gas on your radio

Turns out, America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) has been creating some radio spots of their own which began running in just the last couple of weeks. They focus on some good facts including:

  • Natural gas offers our country affordable, abundant, reliable and cleaner energy for generations to come
  • America has more untapped natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil
  • The Washington Post recently endorsed natural gas as THE natural choice, right now, to lead us to a cleaner energy future.

Take a trip over to ANGA’s site and give them the full listen.

Posted in Natural Gas | 4 Comments

Bruce Kauffmann For Memphis Light, Gas and Water, How “Tweet” It Is!

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Bruce Kauffmann | Comments Off


Any good communicator will tell you that the secret is not just what you communicate but how you communicate it, and the business world, including the natural gas utility industry, is beginning to understand that social media—blogs like True Blue Natural Gas, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like—can play a valuable role in helping companies communicate with their key audiences.

A story in the May issue of American Gas magazine illustrates this point perfectly. One of AGA’s member companies, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) in Memphis, TN, saw an opportunity to use its Twitter account, which it had started in 2008 with little fanfare or following, to communicate with its customers in the wake of a terrible storm and tornado that knocked out power to about 140,000 customers—about one-third of MLGW’s customer base—in the Memphis area.  Since Twitter can be accessed from a cell phone, Blackberry and iPhone in addition to a computer, MLGW could “tweet” to its customers, regardless of where they were, updates on the power outages, power restoration efforts, number of workers in the field, safety tips, and even contact information to get more comprehensive reports.

According to Glen Thomas, the communications and public relations supervisor at MLGW and author of the story in American Gas, the number of MLGW’s Twitter followers quickly went from about 220 to 1,500 and at one point MLGW even got a message from Twitter that the company had exceeded its tweet limit for that day.

But MLGW also got lots of messages back from customers wanting more information, including when they could expect power to be restored in their own homes, so MLGW began tweeting back, giving customers more specific updates on when a particular neighborhood might expect service restored.

MLGW’s use of Twitter even attracted local media attention; local television stations and newspapers did stories on MLGW’s use of Twitter, which was both good public relations and free advertising.

Now that the storm has literally and figuratively blown over, MLGW plans to continue to use Twitter for a variety of communications objectives, including tweeting about energy efficiency, conservation tips, community events and the like.  Feedback from customers via Twitter is also being carefully monitored as a way to determine customer satisfaction with the company.

Yes, there are challenges, including staffing and time, but because Twitter is, quite literally, an instant communications tool—messages cannot exceed 140 characters—it is a way for companies to get and receive information quickly and succinctly.  It certainly seems to be working well for Memphis, Light, Gas and Water.   The company’s Twitter followers (and you can be one of them at www.twitter.com/mlgw) now number 2,500—and growing.

Posted in energy, Natural Gas | Comments Off