By Heather Miller
Photo by Robin May
Louisiana as a whole is “way behind” on the use of compressed natural gas as a cheaper and cleaner fuel for vehicles, but leave it to Lafayette to once again distinguish itself a leader in the state for its efforts to lower the city’s carbon emissions with CNG-run government vehicles and natural gas fueling stations for the public.
Lafayette Consolidated Government Planning Manager Mike Hollier says the city is roughly 2.5 years into its five-year plan to convert all of the city’s buses and most city-owned vehicles (more than 100) to run on CNG.
The benefits for the city and its residents are two-fold, Hollier says, because CNG is both cheaper (about $1.80 per gas gallon equivalent) and helps to lower the EPA-monitored carbon footprint in Lafayette.With grant money in place from both the state and the federal government, Lafayette has already converted five of its buses to run on CNG. Hollier hopes to have more than 100 city-owned vehicles converted to CNG within two years, while also working with UL Lafayette and the Lafayette Parish School System to have their transit buses running on the clean-burning fuel within the same time frame.
The city currently has two CNG fueling stations in operation — the privately owned Apache station on Verot School Road and the LCG-owned station at the public works facility — and a third slated to open in the next few months. That one, on North University Avenue, will be LCG-owned and open to the public. The five-year plan, if successful, will also bring a third public fueling facility (Apache is open to the public) to an undetermined location along I-49 or I-10.
“After two years and a lot of study, it was decided that CNG was the way to go both in the short term and the long term,” Hollier says. “There’s a very positive cost benefit. There’s an additional capital outlay up front, [but] once you make those conversions, the benefits begin to pay off in a matter of years.”
Louisiana is the nation’s top producer of natural gas, according to Louisiana Oil and Gas Association Vice President Gifford Briggs, a factor Hollier says played a role in the city’s decision to invest in CNG.
“It’s home-produced and readily available all around us,” Hollier says.
CNG conversion is a no-brainer for oil and gas industry advocates like Briggs, who notes that the U.S. has a 100- to 150-year supply of natural gas.
Briggs, who commutes daily from his home in Lafayette to the LOGA office in Baton Rouge, has so much faith in the future of natural gas he decided to “put his money where his mouth is” and converted his own Ford Expedition to a “bi-fuel” SUV that runs on both gasoline and CNG. The LOGA lobbyist is able to take advantage of two different types of CNG fueling stations — the Apache station on Verot as well as a home fueling station that’s been installed at LOGA’s office, the Jimmy Davis House in Baton Rouge.
“Apache donated the whole thing,” Briggs explains. “For all practical purposes it’s a box with a hose coming out of it that’s connected to our natural gas line. It’s similar to what we’d do to electric vehicles.”
Money, however, is one of the reasons natural gas hasn’t taken off as quickly as many had hoped in terms of replacing gasoline as the primary means of fueling vehicles. As a recent Wall Street Journal report notes, government agencies using dump trucks, buses and other gas guzzlers and heavy polluters are more eager to jump on board with the start-up costs that come with CNG conversion. The average American is less enthusiastic about conversion costs that run in the thousands, and before recently factories weren’t even churning out CNG-ready vehicles for consumers to consider.
But the nation and Louisiana are finally catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to CNG, Briggs says, with Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet all slated to place bi-fuel pickup trucks on the market soon, albeit in limited availability.
The 100 percent CNG Honda Civic could be available for purchase at Moss Motors within six months thanks to the Apache CNG station that recently opened and the plans for more CNG stations to come. Briggs notes that Honda does not allow dealerships to sell the CNG model unless there’s a fueling station within 25 miles.
“We have enough natural gas to fuel transportation infrastructure, and we rely heavily on oil from countries outside the U.S.,” Briggs says. “It’s cheaper; it’s better for the environment. It seems like it’s such an obvious win for Louisiana because we could very easily become energy independent.”
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MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
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MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
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