Need Cheap Fuel? Natural-gas vehicles hot in Utah, where the fuel is cheap

[Buslady]

Natural-gas vehicles hot in Utah, where the fuel is cheap

SALT LAKE CITY - Troy Anderson was at the gas pump and couldn't have been happier, filling up at a rate of $5 per tank.


Anderson was paying 63.8 cents per gallon equivalent for compressed natural gas, making Utah a hot market for vehicles that run on the fuel.
It's the country's cheapest rate for compressed gas, according to the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, and far less than the $3.56 national average price for a gallon of gasoline.
"I'm totally celebrating," crowed Anderson, a 44-year-old social worker, who picked up a used Honda Civic GX two months ago. "This is the greatest thing. I can't believe more people aren't talking about it. This is practically free."
Personal ownership of natural gas-fueled vehicles in Utah soared from practically nothing a few years ago to an estimated 5,000 vehicles today, overwhelming a growing refueling network, where compressors sometimes can't maintain enough pressure to fill tanks completely for every customer.
"Nobody expected this kind of growth. We got caught by the demand," said Gordon Larsen, a supervisor at Utah utility Questar Gas.
Utah has 91 stations, including 20 open to the public, mostly in the Salt Lake City area. The others are reserved for commercial drivers, such as school districts, bus fleets and big businesses such as a Coca-Cola distributor.
It's possible to drive the interstates between Rock Springs, Wyo., and St. George, Utah — a distance of 477 miles — and find 22 places to pull off and fill up.
California has more stations but prices are much higher there, the equivalent of $2.50 a gallon for gasoline.
"Utah has the cheapest prices by a big margin," said Richard Kolodziej, president of the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, whose members include utilities, Honda Motor Co., environmental groups and transit agencies.
Among major utilities outside of Alaska, Questar is the country's cheapest provider of natural gas for home use. It can offer compressed natural gas for cars even cheaper because of a federal tax credit.
The incentives don't stop there. Buyers of new and some used and converted vehicles can claim their own federal and state tax credits totaling up to $7,000 — nearly the extra cost of a CNG-fueled vehicle.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, paid $12,000 of his own money to modify a state-owned Chevrolet Suburban last June.
"Converting to CNG gives us an opportunity to promote energy security and support a clean-burning alternative," Huntsman said in an e-mail Thursday. "Plus, who can beat running a Suburban on 63 cents a gallon?"
Mike Gaffa, a 39-year-old Continental Airlines reservation clerk, bought a used Ford F-150 pickup for $10,500. The vehicle came with a bonus: a previous owner added three extra tanks that fill the bed of his pickup.
"I don't even keep track of gasoline prices anymore," Gaffa boasted. "You'd be hard-pressed to find another vehicle that can go 600 miles on a fill-up."
And when he runs out of natural gas, he can switch over to a regular gasoline tank for a total range of more than 850 miles.
Utah has caught the attention of Honda, which can't make CNG-equipped Civic GXs fast enough at an Ohio plant. For now, it makes the compact available for sale to individuals only in California and New York, but executives say Utah could be next on their list.
Aside from fleet sales, no other automaker offers a CNG-powered car in the U.S.
Most Utah buyers must turn to the used-car market. They are tracking down vehicles on the Internet, some made earlier by the Detroit automakers. Some dealers here are hauling used CNG vehicles to Utah by the truckload.
"The demand in Utah is huge," Kolodziej said. "It's sucking all the used vehicles from around the country."
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91 stations in all of Utah, and only 20 are public? What is wrong with this?
In my experience here with my new stupid CNG bus, CNG is the most impractical fuel right now. There's only a handful of stations here and with a bus with no range at all, I have to burn fuel to get fuel. I had to go 25 miles out of the way to fuel the bus then go back and waste more fuel to get my tennis team last week. What was really ludicrous, around the corner from the high school was the district's bus yard with CNG pumps...nope, can't use em.
They need to build MORE public access stations, it's rediculous!

[Raph's Girl]

Hmm... I wonder if I'll see any of those when I go home this summer? Since all those public ones are in the SLC area I probably will.

[Deathknight]

What exactly is this "compressed gas?"

[Buslady]

Originally Posted by Deathknight

What exactly is this "compressed gas?"

Compressed Natural Gas is just that, compressed gas like you'd get in the stove and shoved into a specially made tank and used to fuel cars & buses. It is 88% methane so i call it canned farts.
It takes a special nozzle that securely fits onto the vehicle's receiver and the pump is noisy! the fuel is like 1/2 what gas costs. But you get less range than a gas powered car or a diesel bus.

[Machias Banshee]

I'm very wary about these 'green' cars they've been thinking up. From what I've seen, the cars themselves are built so lightweight, (literally plastic), that even a small fenderbender would total the things...

And if you punctured the tank? The whole thing's going to be obliterated..

Not to say that Ethanol's any better...

[Raph's Girl]

Methane?! Seriously?! WTF?! Methane harms the environment more than anything else!! Cows pollute the environment cuz they burp methane.

And those hybrid cars cause more harm than good. The factory that makes the components for the engines is the worst polluter in Canada!

[Buslady]

yeah well the loonies want CNG burning in our engines.

i got lectured by a gas co. rep about how CNG exhaust is lower in everything than diesel, yeah whatever. they aint got the reliability.