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

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.

Industry newsletter Fleet Maintenance—an electronic publication with an audience of about 20,000—covered Energy Vision’s recent research showing the potential of biogas:

Energy Vision, a national non-profit organization that analyzes and promotes technologies and policies to make a swift transition to pollution-free renewal energy sources, found that biogas from NYC’s residential garbage could produce tens of millions of gallons of biomethane vehicle fuel annually, not only during the lifespans of the landfills in which it is buried, but for years after their closure. This fuel – a much cleaner, less polluting fuel – could be used to replace dirtier diesel fuel.

The article also notes that “New York City’s Department of Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty agrees that the findings are impressive, and says that his department will work with Energy Vision on this important issue.”

Take a moment to read the entire article here.

Energy Vision presented a group of speakers at the 2008 Rutgers University Clean Energy Conference. The first speaker, Joanna Underwood, President of Energy Vision, kicked off the conference.

Click below to hear the other speakers:

David Demers – Mr. Demers, CEO Westport Innovations, Vancouver, Canada, spoke about the fact that oil consumption has increased worldwide while discovery of new sources of oil has dramatically dropped.

Russell K. Barnett – Mr. Barnett, Director of Environment and Waterways, Smithtown, Long Island, New York, describes implementation of 100% Natural Gas Sanitation truck fleet, the first of its kind on the East Coast.

Dean Saito – Mr Saito, Manager, South Coast Air Quality Management District, California, spoke about the current levels of air pollution in Southern California where he has sought to reduce the use of diesel fuel by replacing municipal truck fleet fuel with Natural Gas.

Ray Burke – Mr. Burke, Vice President Business Development, Clean Energy, explains the use of alternative fuels, particularly natural gas, for garbage truck fleets.

Smithtown, Long Island is one of a handful of early adoptors of Clean Natural Gas (CNG) for its refuse truck fleet.

Read all about it in the Caribbean Life article published December 10, 2008

Read Joanna Underwood’s letter to the editor in reply to this article.

Read Joanna Underwood’s article on green garbage truck fleets, published in the January, 2009 issue of Canada’s Municipal World Magazine. Municipal World is the oldest continuously published monthly municipal magazine in the world.

Green Truck Fleets

EV’s work was featured on G Word, a show highlighting unsung innovations in the environmental movement on the Discovery Channel’s vanguard network Planet Green. The segment “Green Garbage Trucks” aired on July 22nd at 7:00pm EST.

EV President will be speaking in Toronto June 3rd at the Low Carbon Fuel Standards Workshop for Canada on how heavy duty trucks and buses powered by clean natural gas instead of diesel offer a prime strategy for cutting greenhouse gases. The workshop aims to educate and inform participants, and to identify and discuss key issues and implications related to designing and implementing an effective and efficient low carbon fuel standard in a Canadian context.

Hamilton Township becomes the first in New Jersey to contract for natural gas refuse and recycling haulers to move toward its goal of cleaner fuels. EV worked closely with members of the government and the alternative fuel refuse industry to realize this project that helps New Jersey on its way toward cleaner air and sustainable fuel sources.

Read Trash enters a new era in Hamilton [subscription required] to learn more.