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 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.

It looks like the EU’s ambitious energy policy, aimed at a 20% reduction in CO2 by the year 2020, is being outpaced by an unlikely group—a number of cities from its own member states:

To date almost 550 towns and cities across Europe, and further afield, have made the formal commitment to go beyond the EUs 20% CO2 reduction objectives. Local and urban authorities are key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combating climate change. At present urban areas are responsible for 80% of CO2 emissions and energy consumption, with the growth rate of 1.9% of energy use in cities (versus 1.6% globally). Therefore, it is only through decisive action at the local level that the challenge of climate mitigation can be overcome.

A model for American cities, perhaps?

Click here for more on the EU’s carbon-reduction efforts.