NGVAmerica Applauds President’s Petroleum Displacement Initiative

NGVAmerica Applauds President’s Petroleum Displacement Initiative

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Bush called for increasing the use of renewable and non-petroleum alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons, and reducing U.S. transportation reliance on gasoline 20 percent by 2017. The White House also issued an executive order calling upon federal agencies to take steps to annually increase their use of alternative fuels by 10 percent. NGVAmerica and the NGV Industry applaud the President for this leadership, and enthusiastically support all these initiatives and goals.

Natural gas powered vehicles, which produce less greenhouse gases than comparable gasoline and diesel vehicles, are the fastest growing alternative fuel vehicles around the world. In the U.S., use of NGVs is also growing — especially in high-fuel-use urban vehicles, like transit buses, trash trucks, school buses, delivery vehicles and taxis. They’re also growing as clean commuter vehicles.

”In the U.S., NGVs are already displacing several hundred million gallons of petroleum, and that number can increase rapidly,” said NGVAmerica president Richard Kolodziej. ”In addition, if there were a major focus on producing natural gas-like biomethane from landfills, sewage and animal waste, NGVs running on biomethane alone could displace 10 billion gallons of petroleum annually ”“ almost a third of the President’s goal.

”Given the commitment expressed by the President and similar commitments of Congressional leaders to address petroleum reliance, it is very likely that something concrete will be done this year to further encourage the use of alternative fuels like natural gas,” said Kolodziej. ”We are finally starting to see some real consensus on the need to address our petroleum reliance. It is encouraging, and the NGV industry will play a big part in achieving those goals.”

NGVAmerica is a national organization dedicated to the development of a growing, sustainable and profitable market for vehicles powered by natural gas or hydrogen. NGVAmerica represents more than 120 companies interested in the promotion and use of natural gas and hydrogen as transportation fuels, including: engine, vehicle and equipment manufacturers; fleet operators and service providers; natural gas companies; and environmental groups and government organizations. For more information about NGVAmerica, visit our website at www.ngvamerica.org

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