"There's only one Vermont"

Casella Waste Systems makes it Clear!
Phase One of the US Green Fuels Revolution is Underway in Vermont

 

For the millions of Americans who were distressed last year at the damaging oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, who are concerned about political turmoil in the Middle East, and who are wondering how long our country’s addiction to oil will last – hope is right here in Williston, Vermont!

Casella Waste Systems’ first compressed natural gas (CNG) refueling station, built with AVSG equipment, inaugurated today, marks a bold new direction toward a cleaner environmental future and greater energy security for this region. This new station will refuel Casella’s first three natural gas refuse trucks. I understand that three more will be added in July and the station will be expanded so it can serve as many as 13 CNG trash or recycling trucks.

This fleet shift from diesel to natural gas fuel will cut the region’s air pollution significantly, protecting the health of residents and that of those who drive and work with the fleet vehicles. It will also eliminate the need for tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel a year, made from largely imported oil – a fuel whose pricing is controlled by the exporting countries and a fuel that may well be subject to supply interruptions in the years ahead, as competition increases from China, India and other parts of industrializing Asia for the world’s dwindling oil supplies. Casella will also be installing two more stations (handling 16 CNG trucks each) in Geneva and in Hudson Falls, NY.

Of special importance, these new refueling stations and the CNG vehicles using them will open the door for the use tomorrow of the first truly sustainable fuel that this country has – the renewable form of natural gas called biomethane or “RNG.”  RNG can be made from the gases produced by many forms of organic wastes as they break down – in landfills, sewage treatment plants, in anaerobic digesters, and in agricultural and dairy operations. RNG is being produced in many European countries today and is fueling hundreds of trucks and buses in Sweden, Norway, France, Switzerland and Spain. Interest in this fuel is beginning to grow in the US. Casella’s current explorations of ways to produce RNG from waste at its landfills will expand its pioneering leadership in the Northeast.  Every vehicle powered by conventional natural gas will be equipped to take advantage of RNG when supplies are available in the foreseeable future.

Casella stands as a real leader in how to address this country’s oil addiction - and the vast economic, national security, environmental and health price we are paying for it: Change in the transportation sector is what matters. That is where 55% of all the oil consumed in the US goes - into the tanks of almost 260 million cars, buses and trucks. And the place to start making change is where Casella is starting - with its refuse truck fleets. While the 10 million heavy duty diesel buses and trucks operating nationwide make up just 4% of all vehicles, they consume 23% of all on-road transportation fuel. More than $100 million a day flows abroad to buy the oil just to make fuel for these heavy duty diesel vehicles. They generate 26% of all of transportation’s greenhouse gases and 60 to 80% of the highway-related soot and nitrogen oxide emissions.

I want to congratulate Casella’s President, John Casella, and all those at his company and at AVSG who have made this project possible. The logo on the new natural gas trucks “There is only one Vermont” deserves to be echoed globally: “There is only one planet earth.” The shift in transportation to domestic much cleaner natural gas is one big way to safeguard its future.