Clean Cities Program Recognizes Natural Gas Usage & Top NGV Coalitions

Congratulations on a job well done.

Last month, the Department of Energy's Clean Cities Program released information on the levels of petroleum reductions and alternative fuel use achieved by its more than 90+ coalitions. The list of high achieving coalitions includes a number of successful programs promoting the use of natural gas. In fact, natural gas led all other fuels in consumption with a total of close to 200 million gasoline gallon equivalents (GGE) displaced as a result of Clean Cities' initiatives. CNG by itself surpassed all other fuels with nearly 175 million GGE displaced and LNG adding close to 25 million GGE displaced. The next closest alternative fuel was biodiesel, reporting about 70 million GGE displaced. Nearly 60 percent of alternative fuel use reported by Clean Cities Coalitions was natural gas. The program in 2005 set a goal of displacing 2.5 billion GGE of petroleum fuel by 2020.

In addition to reporting on overall program levels of alternative fuel use, the Clean Cities Program recognized individual programs for their particular achievements. The top natural gas coalitions are as follows:

Compressed Natural Gas

1. Southern California 36.2 million GGE consumed
2. Valley of the Sun (Phoenix) 15.5 million GGE consumed
3. Greater Long Island 11.6 million GGE consumed

Liquefied Natural Gas

1. Valley of the Sun (Phoenix) 8.8 million GGE consumed
2. Long Beach, CA 5.1 million GGE consumed
3. Dallas-Ft. Worth 4.2 million GGE consumed

Other awards were given for most improved coalitions. Included in that category for CNG were the following coalitions: Pittsburgh, PA, Houston-Galveston, TX, and New Haven, CT. For LNG, the most improved included: Southern California, Sacramento, and Long Beach. The most improved category awards are based on having the most significant increases in alternative fuel use for 2011 compared to 2010 levels.

The Clean Cities Program promotes all alternative fuels and the program offers a number of helpful tools and resources on its Alternative Fuel Data Center website. That site includes the station locators, state and local incentives resources, price reports, listings of available OEM alternative fuel vehicles, case studies and many other resources. As part the economic stimulus program (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), the Clean Cities Program awarded $300 million in funding to support coalition infrastructure and vehicle acquisition program. That effort provided funding for several thousand NGVs and more than 100 new NGV stations.