The first Light-Duty Natural Gas Vehicle Conference of Southern California Gas was hosted at the Energy Resource Center in Downey, California.
SoCalGas' Light-Duty Natural Gas Vehicle Conference held today in Downey, CA featured a variety of natural gas-powered vehicles that enable consumers to take advantage of affordable, clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG). The average price in September at SoCalGas filling stations for CNG is $1.94 for the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline or diesel. (PRNewsFoto/Southern California Gas Co.)
The conference highlighted the cost savings that can be achieved by using natural gas as fuel for cars and trucks. The current developments in technology related to gas vehicles (NGV) and compressed natural gas (CNG) were featured at the NGV conference.
Major automakers provided awareness about the developments in the NGV market. The all-new Honda Civic Natural Gas was showcased at the conference. At the Los Angeles Auto Show which was held this year, it was named as the "Green Car of the Year." Further, till 2015, this car has received solo driver carpool lane access.
Other automakers are introducing vehicles that run on both CNG and gasoline. These manufacturers are re-entering the market with dual-fuel vehicles.
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that when compared to gasoline, natural gas emits 30% fewer emissions of greenhouse gases and cuts down emission of smog-producing pollutants by 90%. The VP of customer solutions at SoCalGas, Hal D. Snyder, stated that natural gas was an environmentally friendly, abundant and cost-effective domestic resource. Usage of natural gas helps create more local jobs in the U.S.
Many heavy-duty transit fleets are now using Natural gas fuel instead of diesel. This has led to a large network of CNG fuel stations in Southern California and induced more interest among automakers in NGVs. Presently there are 17,000 natural gas-powered vehicles and around 100 public-access compressed natural gas fueling stations in Southern California. SoCalGas will be upgrading 13 of its public-access CNG stations and will be expanding its natural gas-powered truck fleet by including 1000 trucks.
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