November 10th marked the unveiling of a new natural gas (CNG) refueling station in Trenton, New Jersey, built by Clean Energy, to refuel the state’s first CNG refuse fleet, operated by Central Jersey Waste & Recycling to serve Hamilton Township. With balloons flying, Clean Energy showed off its “slow-fill” station where the trucks will refuel overnight. The fleet operator, Central Jersey Waste, also showed off its first 10 clean quiet CNG trucks. EV’s President Joanna Underwood participated in this event, and was thanked for EV’s role in building the interest that lead to this groundbreaking project.

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New Yorkers! Take a look at Energy Vision’s comments on New York State’s proposed Energy Plan, available here.

EV recommends a green strategy barely included in the plan that could reap huge benefits for New Yorkers: 1) most rapidly reducing the State’s largest source of greenhouse gases (vehicle emissions); 2) cutting heavy state reliance (88%) on foreign oil, and 3) slashing the air pollution that now means more than 13.5 million New Yorkers live in areas that violate public health standards. The strategy? Promote replacement of the dirty diesel trucks and buses on our streets with vehicles using cleaner domestic natural gas!

Got questions? Call 212 228-0225. Want to encourage the State to make this strategy a priority? Let your state legislators know you want a greener future for our State.

For more, check out these links:

2009 Draft New York State Energy Plan

New York State Assembly

New York State Senate

Energy Vision offered this comment in response to this recent article on NPR.org, “Rediscovering Natural Gas By Hitting Rock Bottom”:

Environmental impacts on communities and their air, land and water resources clearly need to be assessed before gas shale projects are undertaken. However, where communities deem it appropriate, natural gas from this source and from traditional sources can play a major transitional role in transportation. Today, virtually all heavy duty bus and truck fleets can shift from diesel to this clean domestic fuel with many benefits: reducing their health-threatening air pollution, cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by 25%-30 percent and ending these fuel guzzlers’ reliance on foreign oil. While heavy duty fleets make up just 5% of on-road vehicles, they consume 20% of the fuel. Further, the shift to a gaseous technology will soon allow a seamless transition for these fleets to the first truly sustainable fuels: “biomethane, a renewable form of natural gas, widely used in Europe but just coming to the US, made from bio-gases generated at landfills, sewage treatment plants and other organic waste sites, and “hythane”(a natural gas/hydrogen blend.) With government funds, this shift is affordable, making it an exciting option for every city in the country to explore.

Take a moment to read and listen the full article here.

In the new issue of EV News…Learn about California’s groundbreaking Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a model for states across the country in tackling climate change. In setting the Standard, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) characterized fuels by their “carbon intensity” (their total planet-warming gas emissions from production through combustion). Natural gas and biomethane ranked highest. For more, click here.

New Jersey is one of many states struggling to shape greenhouse gas reduction policies. Energy Vision’s comments on the draft of the program laid out one major area where the state could do the most in the near term to slash these gases: convert its bus and truck fleets to natural gas. For more, read the full comments here.

Alan Murray from the Commonwealth Club, a public affairs forum, recently played host to an interesting pair: Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, and Dave O’Reilly, chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation. Have a listen as they discuss the future of energy in the field of transportation. Carl Pope presented an especially insightful thought on the potential for change in the energy industry:

25 years ago, if we talked about the phones we’d be having, there’s nothing involved in this system that uses a piece of equipment designed more than 10 years ago. In our energy system, we routinely accept the fact that we drive cars built on chassis built in the 1970’s, we use light bulbs that, actually, Thomas Edison would be able to recognize, and ship them from power plants in some cases built when Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States. We need to turn capital stocks in the energy sector over much much faster. That will actually be good economic news. The rapid change in the telecommunications industry was good for the economy. A similar transformation will be good in the energy economy.

Just how green is your beer? It could very well be a little greener than it was last year…along with your milk and your phone service.

Anheuser Busch, the maker of iconic American beer brands like Budweiser, Verizon, Bartlett Dairy and Derle Farms are among the growing number of companies that are greening their delivery fleets by use of natural gas delivery trucks. Bartlett and Derle are among the first in the dairy industry to adopt CNG technology.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) have awarded 14 companies over $6.6 million to introduce these compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks as well as electric, and hybrid-electric vehicles to City fleets.

The funding is being awarded through the New York City Private Fleet Alternative Fuel/Electric Vehicle Program, which is designed to assist private and not-for-profit fleets operating in New York City to purchase new vehicles or to repower vehicles with alternative fuels or advanced technologies that improve efficiency and reduce emissions. The new clean fuel vehicles (137 in all) will displace over 5.8 million gallons of petroleum over their lifetimes as compared to conventional vehicles. They will cut harmful pollutants by 790 tons of Oxides of Nitrogen, 2,791 tons of Carbon Dioxide, 5 tons of Hydrocarbons, and 18 tons of Particulate Matter over the lifetime of the vehicles. The greatest gains will come from the 72 shifting to CNG.

“This is exactly the kind of public/private cooperation that is quickly producing the kind of change in transportation fuel that Energy Vision advocates,” said Joanna Underwood, Energy Vision’s President. “Natural gas, the one 100% petroleum-free fuel option, is here right now, and its use means one big step on the path to real, sustainable fuel and energy independence.”

The Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) is currently enjoying Honda’s Civic GX natural gas vehicle—an honor received in support and celebration of Energy Vision’s second anniversary.

Read the full article below:

CELF To Raise Awareness on Benefits of Natural Gas Vehicle

April 20-21, 2009
Energy Vision President Joanna Underwood was a keynote speaker at the Spring Conference of the New Jersey Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America. She spoke about “Turning Trash Into Cash: New Opportunity for Our Communities in New Jersey.” The two-day conference took place at the Hilton Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Read more.

April 23, 2009
EV was an exhibitor at the Students for a Sustainable Future EXPO ’09 at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York.

April 25, 2009
Joanna Underwood was a Panelist at the Green Living Expo at Suffolk Community College, Brentwood, New York. The topic is “Green Energy Transportation” Where will Long Islander’s source the fuel needed to transport themselves around the Island? Will they use Bio-Fuel, Electric, Propane or good old-fashioned Petro? Listen to the experts and hear their thoughts on this hot button topic.

For those in the Philadelphia area! We invite you to join Energy Vision, Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities and Bryn Mawr College’s Environmental Studies Department for a clean fuels workshop. Learn how your community can get on the path to sustainable energy by shifting its refuse truck fleets from reliance on high carbon diesel fuel to clean, secure natural gas! For the agenda and to attend, click on this link:

Planning For a Sustainable Future