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The iconic rumbling garbage truck may have met its match: natural gas. Waste Management on Friday will announce it is pushing forward on a nationwide plan to convert all of its 18,342 trucks from loud and smoky diesel engines to quieter and cleaner compressed natural gas-powered machines. The latest destination for the company’s CNG trucks will be the Houston area, starting at a facility in Conroe where 80 trucks will be able to refuel with gas overnight. The Houston-based refuse collection giant is the latest in a line of major corporations, including UPS and AT&T, to expand their use of...

George Soros, T. Boone Pickens, Kevin G. Douglas and companies under their control stand to reap the rewards of billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies contained in a Democratic-sponsored measure set for a vote this week. The legislation, authored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), would amend the much-ballyhooed highway bill to include the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions act, or NATGAS act. The act would provide subsidies for individuals, corporations and public entities that purchase natural gas vehicles or build natural gas distribution facilities. The act would subsidize three different enterprises controlled by Soros, Pickens and Douglas, who...

Chesapeake Energy is spending $1 billion on a three-pronged plan to "break the headlock" of OPEC oil dependency, CEO Aubrey McClendon told CNBC Tuesday. First would be to get the U.S. oil and natural gas liquids industry to increase output by 3 million to 4 million barrels a day over the next 10 years, from the current eight million barrels a day. Chesapeake [CHK 29.87 0.12 (+0.4%) ] also plans to invest $155 million in a private company in Colorado, Sun Drop Fuels, to build a demonstration plant to show off its "breakhtrough technology" that combines "non-food biomass waste material...

Clean Energy Fuels CLNE extended its gains for another day on Wednesday as Wall Street continues to do the math on plans by the company to build 150 natural gas filling stations for fleet trucks to convert their rigs to run on natural gas. Sounding a bullish call on the stock, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich upgraded Clean Energy Fuels to buy from underperform and said a savings of up to $2 a gallon on fuel costs for natural gas-powered trucks could be enough of an incentive for truck owners to make the switch, even if a...

The Texas Senate sent a bill to Gov. Rick Perry’s Desk Thursday afternoon that will establish incentives for companies to buy natural gas-fueled vehicles and help fund fueling stations in the “Texas Triangle” between Houston, San Antonio and Dallas-Ft. Worth. Senate Bill 20 would redirect the funds from the existing Texas Emissions Reduction Program – which replaces or retrofits heavy-duty construction equipment and other vehicles that emit high levels of pollution with less noxious equipment — toward those that specifically use natural gas. Here’s a summary of the bill by the House Research Organization. Natural gas producers have been big...

With Chrysler's soon-to-be-owner Fiat successfully selling natural-gas vehicles (NGVs) in Europe and South America, analysts have suggested that Chrysler would develop and sell natural-gas cars and trucks as one element of its green strategy. Not 'til 2017? Now the company has confirmed it. Bob Lee, Chrysler's vice president for engines and electrified propulsion systems, said Monday that, "the technology is very actively being worked on."

Recently, my colleague Tom Fowler wrote about the use of natural gas-fueled vehicles locally, and efforts to expand that usage nationwide. At its monthly board meeting last Thursday, Metro joined the discussion. The agency's board agreed to cooperate with the Texas Transportation Institute and Capital Metro of Austin to study the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in its bus fleet. Metro's share of the cost of the research is capped at $34,000. Metro has been moving toward a diesel-electric hybrid fleet, with 338 of its 1,250 buses now hybrids, or 27 percent of the fleet, spokesman Jerome Gray said....

Movement toward natural gas-fueled vehicles finally appears to be firing on all cylinders. The surge in U.S. natural gas production from prolific shale formations has created an abundance of the blue-burning fuel. Middle East turmoil and a recovering global economy are putting energy security and high gasoline prices front-and-center in consumer minds. Legislative efforts to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are mired in partisan bickering. And President Barack Obama provided a timely rallying point in a speech this week, giving a positive nod to government incentives for natural gas vehicles as alternatives to ones powered by higher-emission, oil-based fuels....

[The following is an excerpt] Atlanta Gas Light intends to ‘seed’ the new CNG market to better enable potential market participants to make the long term capital commitments required to purchase vehicles or provide fueling infrastructure to benefit from access to the Atlanta Gas Light baseline facilities. Atlanta Gas Light intends to provide the installation and maintenance of fueling equipment and supporting infrastructure at locations throughout metropolitan Atlanta and eventually in other major cities and along major transportation corridors throughout the state. These locations would be on new or existing commercial sites, convenient to the location of commercial fleets and...

After almost two decades of effort to reduce vehicle emissions, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority will retire its last diesel bus Wednesday and become the only major transit agency in the nation with a fleet that is totally equipped with alternative-fuel technologies. In an urban area where diesel buses began operating in 1940, the MTA now has 2,221 buses powered by compressed natural gas, as well as one electric bus and six gasoline-electric hybrids. Transit officials estimate that the elimination of diesel engines has reduced the release of cancer-causing particulates from the bus fleet by 80% and greenhouse...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday said he was sending more than 200 national guard troops to the California-Mexico border. After a tour of the border Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said he plans to have 224 troops in place by Sept. 1. “These men and women will provide much-needed assistance to help secure our border, but it’s important to remember that this is only the beginning," Schwarzenegger said in a statement Wednesday.

Instead of a wholesale switch to electric cars, with all their inherent range and charging problems, a seemingly easier way to wean ourselves off gasoline is to find alternate fuel that could be used in slightly modified internal-combustion engines. Unfortunately, there are some very real reasons—never mind what conspiracy theorists might tell you about oil companies and corrupt government officials—why most alternative fuels are not ready for prime time yet. Here’s a look at the current status and near-term future outlook of the major alternatives to gasoline. Modern turbo-diesels get about 30 percent better fuel economy than their gasoline counterparts,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday mobilized members of the California National Guard as part of a federal effort to deter drug trafficking and illegal immigration along the border with Mexico. His order supports President Barack Obama's plan to have 1,200 National Guard troops assist with federal border protection, customs and immigration agents.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an order Friday to deploy National Guard troops to the Mexico-U.S. border for about a year.

Allen Brooks is to be complimented for writing this piece to stimulate discussion on the gas capacity and economics of one of the most important new reservoirs, the Haynesville Shale. I rarely respond to our guest commentators but in this case I wear two hats. I happen to be, as many of you know, a petroleum production engineer, with more than 25 years of experience in hydraulic fracturing. I was also among the first people in the industry to have used this type of well completion on horizontal wells. The deployment of these two technologies, along with geosteering, new instrumentation,...

I’ve written extensively on the severe economic, environmental, and national security problems the US faces as a result of its dependence on foreign oil imports in an era of peak oil. A recent series of my articles published here on SeekingAlpha have built strong cases to support the following assertions: The transportation sector is 70% of total US oil consumption. To significantly reduce US foreign oil imports the US must reduce oil (gasoline) consumption in the transportation sector. The only US domestic fuel capable of being scaled up to significantly reduce oil consumption in the transportation sector over the next...

WASHINGTON, DC - April 6, 2009: Amidst charges that embattled American Honda is systematically suppressing its compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle program, the company has suddenly fueled that impression by throwing into bankruptcy its wholly-owned CNG refueling company, Fuelmaker. Toronto-based Fuelmaker was arguably the lynchpin of CNG’s future as a bridge solution to alternative fuel. The firm manufactured and distributed the essential refueling appliance that allowed home-based and fleet refueling of CNG vehicles, including the Honda Civic GX, heralded as the “greenest car in America.”

[...] As the name suggests, the Camry CNG Hybrid concept transforms the stock gasoline-electric hybrid into one that runs on compressed natural gas. Why CNG? According to Chris Hostetter, Toyota's vice president of advanced product strategy, future demand for liquid petroleum will exceed supply, and automakers must look for an alternative. "We believe CNG will be one of those alternatives," he said. Indeed, it's an interesting choice. CNG burns cleaner than gasoline, producing less particulate matter, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide than its commonplace counterpart. Add the ability to run on electric power alone, and the Camry CNG...

Now Provides Natural Gas Fueling at 20 US Airports SEAL BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq:CLNE - News) will own, operate and supply fuel for new compressed natural gas (CNG) public access stations to support airport operations in Atlanta and Oklahoma City. In the Atlanta area, the City of College Park, Georgia, contracted with Clean Energy to design, construct and manage a public access CNG fueling station on City-owned property located less than a mile from the entrance to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, among the busiest in the world. The facility is designed to serve a range of light,...

-- Acquisition Extends Clean Energy's Natural Gas Fueling Franchise to Small Fleets and Consumers in United States and Overseas -- SEAL BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq:CLNE - News) has entered into a definitive agreement with American Honda Motor Co., Inc. and The FuelMaker Trust to acquire FuelMaker Corporation of Toronto, Canada for (US) $17 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to be completed within 25 days. FuelMaker (www.fuelmaker.com) manufactures, distributes, installs and services vehicle refueling appliances (VRA) and accessories for fueling vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG). The consumer version of the VRA is the Phill,...