Switching to natural gas
Beginning Jan. 1, residential refuse-recycling contractors serving Smithtown, N.Y., are required to use trucks powered by natural gas. Town officials conservatively estimate the fuel switch will save residents an average of $40 per household over the next seven years while simultaneously displacing more than 2.5 million gallons of diesel fuel and reducing hundreds of tons of soot and other smog-producing emissions. The policy, adopted last July, is the first of its kind in New York.
In spring 2006, Smithtown began preparing a request for bids for residential refuse and recycling collection services. The town’s existing five-year agreement with five contractors, due to expire in December 2006, was signed when diesel was only $1.30 per gallon. The contractors, for whom diesel had reached $3.30 per gallon, made it clear that their new bids would reflect the higher fuel prices and projected increases. Town officials proposed that contractors use less expensive compressed natural gas (CNG), but the different fuel would require companies to replace their existing trucks. They met with truck vendors to investigate vehicle availability and pricing, while a representative of the local gas utility, KeySpan Energy, helped pursue a federal Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality grant that could help the contractors cover about 80 percent of the incremental price premium for natural gas trucks.
The city then negotiated with Seal Beach, Calif.-based Clean Energy, an independent natural gas fueling station developer that operates a nearby CNG station for the state’s fleet, to structure a seven-year guaranteed CNG pricing agreement that is well below projected diesel prices and eliminates fuel price uncertainty for the contractors. After the town issued its request for bids specifying that contractors use compressed natural gas vehicles, it received twice the number of bids than usual and competitive pricing. It awarded the contracts to four companies, which purchased 22 new CNG trucks — nine Hagerstown, Ind.-based Autocar units and 13 Tulsa, Okla.-based Crane Carrier units.
Project:
Refuse truck fuel change
Jurisdiction:
Smithtown, N.Y.
Agency:
Environmental Protection
Vendors:
Seal Beach, Calif.-based Clean Energy; Hagerstown, Ind.-based Autocar; Tulsa, Okla.-based Crane Carrier
Date began:
Jan. 1, 2007
Cost:
$38.8 million for a seven-year contract
