21st century filling stations in United States

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. of California is planning to construct a $1 million, 17,000-square-foot compressed natural gas fueling station early next year at or very near the airport. Once completed, it will offer 24-hour access with a credit card, said Ken Nicholson, Clean Energy Fuels general manager for Central Texas.

Nicholson said the company is engaging the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, along with cab and shuttle companies traveling in and out of the airport, in a bid to convert them to natural gas.

The Parking Spot parking and shuttle company, based in Chicago, already has its own, small pump at ABIA. The company signed a deal in April with Clean Energy Fuels to convert its Austin fleet to natural gas. That contract primed the pump for an expansion at ABIA, Nicholson said.

Bill Kelly, Parking Spot’s Austin manager, said the new pump will also boost their operations in the event their private pump breaks down. “I am kind of excited about this; actually, I am excited,” he said. “We are seeing the infrastructure pick up on this side of Austin.”

Clean Energy Fuels, whose board includes energy industry tycoon T. Boone Pickens, operates more than 20 pumps at airports across the country, and has found success in Dallas and Houston, where it is increasing infrastructure and watching more for-hire transportation companies switch to natural gas, Nicholson said.

Already, another parking and shuttle company, Cincinnati-based Airport Fast Park, is planning in January to replace its 12 biodiesel shuttles in Austin with new ones that run on natural gas, said Gina Van Winkle, the Austin manager.

Another natural gas company, Pinnacle CNG Systems LLC, operates a pump at the Austin Solid Waste Services Facility on Todd Lane, but that pump is 30 minutes away and in an inconvenient location, Van Winkle said.

Whether or not cabs follow suit remains to be seen. Ken Grant, a manager at Austin Cab Co., said his company used to own natural gas-powered cars, but it got rid of them due to a lack of infrastructure. “Say I have a trip to Fort Hood, and for whatever reason I didn’t have a complete tank,” he said. “Now I have a logistical problem: Where are gas stations?”

Also, the gas tank intrudes into trunk space and can force drivers to forgo customers with a lot of baggage, he said. Cabs could step up if the city incentivizes it, something Grant said he could see Austin doing. While City Council aides said the issue isn’t on their radar screens, it is not unprecedented.

In November, Dallas officials granted natural gas-powered cabs the right to cut in front of gasoline-powered cabs to pick up fares at the airport..

Clean Energy Fuels owns and operates the third-largest landfill gas operation in the United States in Dallas.

Pickens founded its Clean Energy Fuels’ predecessor, Pickens Fuel Corp., in 1997. He has been a big proponent of using natural gas for transportation rather than gasoline, making that a goal a pillar of Pickens’ Plan — a broad strategy for reducing the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.

Others have jumped on the bandwagon. Texas Gas Service offers a variety of rebates to convert to natural gas, and earlier this year Austin-based CleanFuel Conversions forged a distribution agreement with Altech-Eco to bring Ford Focus cars retrofitted to run on gasoline and compressed natural gas to Texas consumers. Future plans also include offering natural gas retrofits for a widening variety of larger sedans and trucks for fleets and consumers. The car can run on natural gas or gasoline, and averages 35 miles per gallon on the highway and 24 mpg in the city.

And about this time last year, Fox Service Co. began installing compressed natural gas refueling stations for residences and businesses. The filling stations, called FuelMaker Phill, cost about $6,400 to $8,400 with installation. Local and federal rebates can total up to $3,000 per installation.