Moniz Says U.S. Will Speed Development of Natural Gas Fueling Infrastructure

This story appears in the June 24 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz called natural gas a promising alternative to oil for a number of reasons and said the department hopes to play a role in speeding development of fueling infrastructure.

Moniz made the comments during a keynote address at one of two events in the nation’s capital last week promoting the use of natural gas and other alternative fuels.

“Crude oil imports and exports essentially are becoming equal for the first time in a long time. However, this does not change the fact that we need to decrease our oil dependence, particularly as a transportation fuel,” Moniz said June 17 at the annual conference of the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

Moniz said natural gas is abundant and price-stable relative to oil and could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The biggest challenge is getting fueling infrastructure in place, he said.

“I think the main thing that the department has done is try to engage in how we might help with infrastructure development,” Moniz told Transport Topics.

“I think the first step is likely to be use of LNG — as it is developing — in so-called station-to-station operations, so when a Class 8 vehicle is going back and forth between a port and a city, for example, then the infrastructure is more easily managed,” Moniz said.

Another speaker, Michael Gallagher, a senior adviser at Westport Innovations, said the lack of infrastructure is slowing the pace of natural-gas use for trucking.

“The heavy-duty systems allow you to work in ways that don’t require full build-out of network infrastructure,” he said of the small natural-gas fueling station network. “A lot of vehicles go back and forth on the same route every day.”

Westport, in a joint venture with engine maker Cummins Inc. named Cummins Westport, made the first liquefied (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) engines in North America and recently introduced a 12-liter model.

Some 75% of the problem hindering natural-gas use in trucking is the cost of the trucks versus diesel-powered trucks, Gallagher said.

“The engines are more expensive, the storage systems are more expensive and it’s a brand new technology,” he said.

Gallagher told TT after his speech that a natural-gas truck costs about $60,000 more than a truck running on diesel.

He also said that advances in shale-gas extraction and production are generating interest in natural gas.

“At the beginning of the shale-gas development, the price of [natural] gas started separating from the price of oil,” Gallagher said, “and that increment started getting pretty significant, to the point today, it’s not unusual to see a $1.50 or $2 per gallon [of diesel equivalent] lower cost for natural gas,”

At a separate event hosted by National Journal and sponsor Clean Energy Fuels Corp., Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, confirmed that natural gas is not yet a cost-effective option for most trucking fleets but will play an important role in the industry’s future. “The fact we now have the potential for competition in the selection of the fuel to power our vehicles is an exciting development for the commercial vehicle industry,” he said.

During a panel discussion that included transportation and fuel representatives, Graves repeated ATA’s call for an increase in the federal fuel tax to pay for across-the-board improvements in the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

Martin Durbin, president of America’s Natural Gas Alliance, told the group that technological advancements over the next decade, such as easier natural-gas fueling stations, will spur vehicle demand among the commercial- vehicle sector and the public.

The event included interviews with Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), who recently introduced bills that would alter what they say is the disparity between the tax on diesel fuel and on liquefied natural gas.

They disagreed on how the United States should approach exports. Burr encouraged exporting “all that we don’t need.” But Larson said near-term emphasis should be on the best uses available for LNG in the United States.

When asked about the environmental concerns with the hydraulic fracturing process, Burr said, “I’ve seen science that suggests that there is [an environmental impact]. I’ve seen science that suggests that there is no problem.”