T. Boone Pickens joined Congressmen Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Jim Gerlach (R-PA) for a tour of West Chester University’s natural gas refueling facility. West Chester College is located in Eastern Pennsylvania. According to the Delaware County News Network website:
The university has 22 vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, seven of which run on natural gas only. The on-campus transportation facility is home to two natural gas pumps that have been servicing the specially-outfitted vehicles since 1998. The stations provided 9,800 gasoline gallon equivalents (gge) of compressed natural gas last year, or about 25 percent of the fuel used by the university. At a cost of $1.65 per gge, the cost of using natural gas is far more economical than using gasoline.
Meehan and Gerlach are two of the 187 bipartisan cosponsors of the NAT GAS Act (H.R. 1380). Rep. Meehan said that the NAT GAS Act is targeted at “converting the 8 million heavy trucks that consume 23 percent of the country’s oil-based fuels to natural gas. Converting just a single garbage truck to natural gas would be the equivalent of taking 300 cars off the road,” Meehan said.
Associate Editor Vince Sullivan, who authored the piece, wrote:
“According to statistics released by West Chester University, carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by 90 percent and carbon dioxide is cut down 25 percent. The trucks at West Chester University get similar fuel economy as gasoline-powered vehicles, but there range is typically 50 to 100 miles less than gasoline trucks.”
Rep. Meehan pointed to our dependence on OPEC oil “as an issue of national security.” Sullivan wrote that:
“Pickens elaborated on that plan, saying that it could be done in five years by urging businesses to buy natural gas-burning trucks when they replace their fleets. They would not have to get rid of any oil-burning vehicles. Pickens suggested offering tax incentives that would cover the added costs of the converted trucks for those five years.”
To read the entire article click HERE.
— The Pickens Team