Rich Kolodziej

                                                                        Washington, D.C

 

It seems like everyone--from senators to fleet operators to the average driver--is talking about the need to displace foreign oil with some type of alternative fuel or advanced technology.

About three-quarters of the U.S.'s on-road fuel is used in cars and light-duty trucks. Consequently, most of the discussion and most of the alternative vehicle options have focused on light-duty vehicles, such as the Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ) gasoline-hybrid Prius or the Honda (nyse: HMC - news - people ) natural gas GX, and light-duty alternative fuels, such as ethanol blends.

But about a quarter of our on-road petroleum is used in heavier diesel-powered commercial vehicles, such as buses and medium- or heavy-duty trucks. These vehicles are the economic backbone of the country.

In a petroleum crisis, individuals have choices: mass transit, car pooling or even walking. But most of the goods moved from factories or ports to stores--and to customers--must be transported by truck. And for truck companies and drivers, fuel cost is a very large percentage of their budgets.

The rising cost of diesel is not just a minor inconvenience. Every day there are articles about truckers whose net pay is approaching zero or about a municipal transit agency with a busted budget--all because the price of diesel fuel is skyrocketing.

What to do? One increasingly attractive option is to power vehicles with natural gas. Natural gas is plentiful, cleaner and far less expensive. Depending on the region of the country, natural gas is 75 cents to $2 less than the diesel-gallon equivalent (i.e., for the same amount of energy in a gallon of diesel fuel) at the pump. For truckers buying 15,000 gallons of diesel per year, that's $11,000 to $30,000 in annual savings. Additionally, since 85% of the natural gas used in the U.S. is produced here, with another 12% produced in Canada, natural gas vehicles reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

They're also cleaner than diesel vehicles. For example, new natural-gas heavy-duty engines produce one-sixth of the nitrogen oxides of even the cleanest diesel engines. As an added bonus, they produce over 20% less greenhouse gases. Most important, natural gas vehicles (NGVs) are a "here-and-now technology." No major technical breakthroughs are needed.

NGVs do cost more--between $35,000 and $45,000 more than comparable diesel vehicles. Depending on vehicle and engine size, existing diesel trucks and buses can be repowered (i.e., the engines and fuel system replaced) at a cost of $45,000 to $65,000. But the added cost can be recovered quickly because of the lower operating expenses. Plus, the federal government provides a tax credit of up to $32,000, and some states provide additional credits.

For all these reasons, transit buses, school buses, shuttle buses, refuse trucks, urban delivery trucks, air and water port vehicles and other urban fleets are increasingly switching to NGVs. At least 130 transit fleets are now operating more than 10,000 natural gas buses, and 20% of buses on order are NGVs.

And then there's the San Pedro, Calif., ports (Long Beach and Los Angeles). About 25% of the particulate pollution in the Los Angeles basin is the result of port activity, and the ports expect container traffic at the facilities to more than double by 2020. A new plan aims to reduce the pollution from the 16,000 trucks that service the ports; the Port of Long Beach recently announced that at least 50% of the trucks that use the port must be natural-gas powered.

In 2007, natural gas displaced 250 million gallons of petroleum in vehicles. That's a tiny fraction of the petroleum America uses, but it's a 30% increase from 2006. With proper support, that number could reach 10 billion gallons by 2020. That's 20% of the projected diesel use in that year.

Is natural gas the silver bullet answer to our petroleum dependence? Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet answer. For the last 100 years, we have been lucky. The American and world economies have been built on cheap and plentiful oil. With oil prices exceeding $105 per barrel, the period of cheap oil is gone. And with world demand outstripping world supply, most analysts believe plentiful oil may be disappearing as well.

We must accelerate the use of all alternative fuels and advanced technologies--especially in our commercial fleets. Alternative fuel must play a bigger role in fleet applications and areas of the country where they make the most economic sense. In urban fleets, what makes the most sense is natural gas.

Richard Kolodziej is the president of NGVAmerica, the national trade association for natural gas vehicles, based in Washington, D.C.

 Sourse: FORBES  http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/06/solutions-green-car-kolodziej-oped-cx_rko_0307kolodziej.html