Electric Drive Community Readiness Workshop

Clean Cities Coachella Valley Region has organized to a community plug-in electric vehicle readiness and charging infrastructure workshop for February 21 in Palm Springs, California at 3111 East Tahquitz Canyon Way, the IHUB/CVEP building. The agenda includes

• Zoning and parking
• Building code updates
• Streamline approach & inspection
• Training and education tactics
• Available funding and incentives
• Utility support

RSVP required to Georgia Sevright, 909-754-8663 or georgias@cv3r.org

This information comes via the "Slide Into Electric With Clean Cities Coachella Valley Region" blog.

American Clean Skies Foundation Survey Results

A report on the results of the survey in November 2012 of natural gas vehicle professionals showed that the price spread between diesel and CNG/LNG is the most important factor in fleet adoption of natural gas vehicles. The survey respondents were also very confident that the heavy-duty market segment will grow, but less confident about growth in the light-duty market. More than half regard the cost of fueling equipment as a significant impediment to building new fueling stations. About half feel that tax credits are the most effective incentive to increase natural gas vehicle infrastructure development.

What Are Those Lights In North Dakota?

It's a new oil and gas field created by fracking. It produces 660,000 barrels of oil per day. 29% of the gas that is brought up is flared off because it's not as profitable as oil, and there is insufficient infrastructure to pipe it away.

Fracking holds the promise of cheaper, cleaner fuel

An op-ed in The Buffalo News by Craig Jackson, business development manager at Cobey Inc. in Buffalo, New York. He says "There are many reasons why embracing this new technology is good for our natural environment and our economy." He explains that CNG is cleaner than gasoline. It's less expensive and abundant.

Technology has made extracting natural gas from previously inaccessible shale possible. In 2000, only 2 percent of our natural gas came from shale. By 2012, that amount grew to 37 percent. Abundance leads to innovation, too. The U.S. Department of Energy announced in July that it will award $30 million to 13 cutting-edge research projects through its Advanced Research Projects Agency. This initiative will encourage development of natural gas tanks and compressors for readier use.

In the same issue of the newspaper Joel Huberman says that electric vehicles powered by wind, sun, and water are even cleaner and will be available for millions of years. Joel Huberman is a retired scientist and a member of the Energy Committee of the Niagara Group of the Sierra Club.

CNG School Buses For Two School Districts

The Desert Sun editorial board expressed support for the use of Sentinel mitigation funds to purchase CNG school buses for the Coachella Valley and Desert Sands Unified School Districts. The editorial also provides an overview of other CNG vehicle projects in the valley.

On January 4, 2013, the use of the mitigation funds to purchase the CNG school buses was finally approved by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

GreenFuel

GreenFuel is an Apple app that helps you locate alternative fuel stations in the United States. $1.99 from the Apple App Store. There is also the GreenFuel Lite version which is free and searches only for CNG stations within a 5 or 15 mile radius.

The Department of Energy provides this web page which is not an app and lacks GPS functionality, so you need to tell it where you are.

There is also the Alternative Fuel Finder, another Apple app.

Another one is Cleaner and Greener Fuel Station Finder which is free and also available as an Android app.

Third Stone Software offers the Alternative Fuel Locator app for Apple devices.

Also available for Android are Green-Driver: Alternative Fuel for $1.99 and KeenDriver, which is free.

CBS News On Fracking

Video with transcript of a report from December 30, 2012, in which David Pogue interviews some people on both sides of the controversy.

I was really hoping that I'd be able to tell you, once and for all, who's right: the gas companies or the worried environmentalists.

But I'm sorry; I can't. There's so much we don't know. We don't know exactly what chemicals are being pumped into the ground.

"The problem is there are a number of proprietary compounds that are used; they're not revealed," said [Cornell professor Bob] Oswald.

We don't know how often problems occur - a number of cases have been closed by non-disclosure agreements. "The landowner, the farmer is compensated, and in exchange for that compensation, their silence is purchased," said Oswald.

So: Is fracking worth the risk? Trouble is, we don't know what the risk is. The EPA is conducting the first national, comprehensive study, but it won't be finished until 2014.

Here's one thing we do know: fracking has been incredibly successful. There are 36,000 fracking wells in this country; thousands more open up every year. The price of batural gas has dropped by 33 percent since 2006 - we're actually about to start exporting it.

Tax Credits Extended

From Richard Kolodziej, President of NGVAmerica:

Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2013 8:35 PM
Subject: Congress Extends Fuel and Infrastructure Tax Credits

Tonight, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act to avert the “fiscal cliff”. Included in that legislation was a one-year extension of a large number of tax credits – including the tax credit for the sale of CNG and LNG for vehicle use and for the installation of natural gas fueling equipment. Specifically, this is the 50 cent per GGE tax credit for CNG, 50 cent per gallon tax credit for LNG and the $30,000 infrastructure tax credit. The tax credits are extended until December 31, 2013 and ARE RETROACTIVE FOR ALL OF 2012. The President said he will sign the bill. More details will be included in our weekly newsletter.

A really great start to 2013! Happy New Year!

Rich