Fuel Security: NGVs Reduce California’s Oil Dependence

California’s dependence on declining supplies of oil concentrated in politically unstable regions and purchased in an increasingly competitive world market puts the state’s economy at grave risk.

Natural gas can reduce that risk: The 31,000 natural gas vehicles operating in California in 2008 displaced 115 million gallons of petroleum fuels. We believe NGVs can displace 1 billion to 2 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel by 2030.

Natural gas as a transportation fuel has several key advantages:

It’s domestic.

About 98 percent of the natural gas Americans use comes from North America. About 84 percent is produced domestically; more than 90 percent of imports come from Canada and Mexico. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts a sharp decline in imports as the domestic supply grows.

It’s low-cost.

High-use NGV fleets pay substantially less for natural gas than they would for gasoline or diesel, and consumers who refill NGV tanks at home get residential fueling discounts from California utilities that put compressed natural gas costs far below gasoline. Natural gas prices are projected to increase much less than petroleum prices over the next 25 years, further widening the cost advantage.

It’s in ample supply.

North America has at least a 120-year supply of natural gas, according to a June 2008 study by Navigant Consulting. California’s increasing use of renewable fuels for energy generation will free up more than enough natural gas for the fuel’s highest anticipated use in transportation. And renewable natural gas could constitute a significant portion of NGV fuel in the coming years.

Photo credits: station courtesy Clean Energy Fuels;
truck, ©Westport Power Inc.