20th Annual National NGV Achievement Award Winners Announced

WASHINGTON AND ACWORTH, GA – NGVAmerica and the Clean Vehicle Education Foundation (CVEF) announced ten 2012 winners of the prestigious NGV Achievement Award, in addition to one NGV Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards are given to persons and organizations in recognition of their outstanding contributions in leadership, vision and innovation to the advancement of natural gas as a vehicular fuel.

The 2012 NGV Achievement Award winners are:

• Outstanding NGV Advocate-Ally: Chuck Feinberg / NJ Clean Cities Coalition. For effectively leveraging a $15 million federal grant with an additional $32 million non-federal capital investment to establish a program to accelerate the transition of private and municipal fleets to CNG in the State of New Jersey.  With this funding, the Clean Cities Coalition and its partnerships added over 300 natural gas vehicles - in addition to the construction of six new CNG stations across the state. Consequently, these efforts will directly displace 2 million gallons of petroleum fuel and remove more than 900,000 lbs. of criteria pollutants per year.
• Innovative Landfill Gas-to-CNG Project: DeKalb County, GA – Dept of Sanitation. For a $15 million project that includes the construction of the DeKalb County Renewable Energy Facility, a plant designed to convert landfill gas to produce 2.3 million diesel gallon equivalents of CNG annually. A public-access CNG fueling station has also been built on site to dispense fuel to 40 of their vehicles, allowing this fleet to be powered by the trash they haul. An additional 39 natural gas vehicles will be added to their fleet in 2013.  The county’s goal is to replace or adapt its entire fleet of 306 vehicles to natural gas fuel which – when implemented - will displace 1,250,000 gallons of diesel annually.  Under current market conditions, turning ‘Trash to Gas’ and ‘Gas to Cash’, DeKalb County vehicles are forecasted to save $3 million over the next eight years.
   
  • Outstanding NGV 3PL Industry Leadership: Saddle Creek Logistics Services. For incorporating over 100 Freightliner M2-112’s by year end to support their client’s sustainability programs.  Saddle Creek’s existing eco-friendly fleet of 40 NGV trucks hit the two million mile mark in August.  The first of Saddle Creek’s planned network of natural gas fueling stations opened in March at a cost of $2.2 million dollars. With the addition of 62 more trucks by this December, Saddle Creek will be displacing 1,530,000 gallons of diesel fuel and reducing its carbon footprint by 11,400,000 pounds annually. It should be noted that all these accomplishments have been done without any government subsidies.
  • Outstanding CNG Fleet & Station Program: Golden Eagle Distributors, Inc. For a 100% heavy-duty CNG fleet conversion at their Tucson (22 M2-112’s) and Casa Grande (5 M2-112’s) facilities in addition to a newly-constructed public access compressed natural gas fueling station, making it Tucson’s 3^rd CNG fueling station. Golden Eagle’s strategic plan is to convert all its heavy-duty diesel vehicles to CNG. Next month, construction to build a second public-access cng station in Casa Grande will fuel not only their fleet but serve to provide others in the community with the opportunity to consider utilizing ngv’s.
  • Exemplary CNG Fleet & Station Program: City of Nashua, N.H. For their rapid deployment of a very aggressive NGV program; in the span of just 18 short months, from learning about the benefits of CNG to the station ribbon cutting ceremony.  While this process will be a multi-year transformation, the City will have nearly 40 CNG vehicles deployed by December 31^st, this year.  Nashua’s CNG station is fully public-access and currently consuming just over 3,000 GGE’s per month. Nashua is the first municipality in New England to take a comprehensive approach to fleet replacement utilizing CNG in many city departments affecting light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles simultaneously. The City of Nashua should be commended for creating the first public-private partnership CNG station in the state.
  • NGV Public Policy Champion: PA State Rep Stan Saylor. For showing great leadership by generating tremendous NGV momentum in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.  Representative Saylor has educated House members about the benefits of natural gas as well as the huge opportunity the Marcellus shale resource plays to move the Commonwealth toward energy independence. To this end, in April, Representative Stan Saylor unveiled a package of legislation called “Marcellus Works,” designed to secure Pennsylvania’s energy future and create thousands of new jobs by creating incentives for the use of clean natural gas. Act 13 – supported by Rep. Saylor - was signed into law by Governor Corbett early this year which will provide $20 million in grants through 2015 for initiatives that include the conversion of vehicles to natural gas.
  • Outstanding NGV 3PL Industry Leadership: Paper Transport, Inc.  For their 20 CNG trucks on the road and 15 on order scheduled for delivery next month.  To date, Paper Transport has logged over 2.4 million miles with NG powered trucks.  PTI has formed a joint venture to build public-access CNG fueling stations throughout the regions in which they operate.  The first station opened in Green Bay this January and 2 have been added since with 2 more planned for early 2013.  In promoting our industry, PTI advocates natural gas as a transportation fuel to their competitors, sharing technical expertise with other carriers looking to explore CNG as an alternative fuel source.  Additionally, Paper Transport has lent itself to serve as guinea pigs by testing prototype compressed natural gas product, putting into service a Kenworth and a Freightliner tractor powered by the CWI ISX-12G CNG engine. They have also been instrumental in working with and testing APG dual-fuel technology.  PTI has been and continues to be a leader and pioneer in the natural gas truck market.
  • Outstanding NGV Market Development Leadership: Kwik Trip, Inc. For building the nation’s first truly alternative fuels station in La Crosse, WI – a personal investment of $3 million dollars.  The design of the station itself is a marvel due to the fact that it incorporates 10 transportation fuels, including CNG and LNG, under a single canopy to achieve a one-stop fueling experience for the general public. Kwik Trip currently has three locations offering CNG – which sells for between $1.59 and $1.79 per GGE in Wisconsin, and plans to open five more stations this year. An additional 10 stations are slated to open in 2013.  Kwik Trip's own NGV fleet will serve as part of the anchor load. Kwik Trip maintains a fleet of about 400 vehicles which travel over 18 million miles annually. They have just begun to transform their fleet and currently operate over 20 NGVs ranging from light duty vehicles to Class 8 trucks.  Kwik Trip is an activist for the ngv industry and strongly advocates the nationwide adoption of natural gas to be a standard fuel instead of an alternative fuel. 
  • NGV Lifetime Achievement Award: William J. “Bill” Calvert.  In his 30+ year NGV career, Calvert has left his mark, engaging others to enter the market early on and to become NGV industry leaders in their own right, co-founding and then successfully building BAF Technologies - one of the NGV industry’s leading SVMs, near-single-handedly developing the cutaway shuttle bus niche sector, and mentoring countless individuals - both inside and outside his own company - along the way.  Calvert was a founding member of the Kentucky Clean Fuels Partnership - home of one of the very first Clean Cities Coalitions, and was also an early participant and member of AGA’s NGV Technology Committee, which later spun off to become the NGV Coalition and now NGVAmerica. Calvert’s focus on building trust in his relationships has earned him the respect of his BAF associates, his competitors, his customers, his suppliers, policymakers, advocate-allies and industry icons. There aren’t many people in this industry that Bill has not somehow touched either directly or indirectly. His influence - his legacy – may be measured in so many ways --- but the most important is the measure of the trust and friendships that he has developed over the years.

• Exemplary CNG Fleet & Station Program: Frito-Lay North America, Inc. For advocating natural gas as a win-win situation, both in terms of accomplishing their sustainability strategy and reducing costs.  As the 7^th largest private delivery fleet in the United States, Frito-Lay – a division of PepsiCo - has made outstanding contributions toward the advancement of natural gas as a vehicular fuel. Frito-Lay has turned to natural gas for its heavy-duty fleets starting a pilot program of 18 Freightliner M2-112 tractors in 2011. Testing was successful and as a result, they have added 54 thus far this year with plans to have a total of 160 natural gas trucks in 2013. At an average consumption of 13,000 gallons of fuel per truck, Frito-Lay’s current fleet of 72 NGVs yields the total displacement of nearly 936,000 gallons of diesel annually. Saving $2.50 a diesel gallon equivalent translates to over $2.3 million dollars in fuel savings with this fleet.
• Exemplary Shale Play LNG Truck Deployment Program: Green Energy Oilfield Services, LLC.  For being one of the first companies in the industry to provide fluid management services, including fluid transportation, storage, and disposal through the utilization of LNG- powered trucks. Early this year, Green Energy purchased its first 60 Peterbilt Model 388 LNG tractors powered by Westport HD 15L technology; 50 of these tractors are used as vacuum trucks which remove and dispose of formation water and 10 are used as winch trucks, transporting frac tanks for onsite storage of fluids. Green Energy has contracted to build a LNG fueling station at their headquarters to use fuel that will support their oil production customers within a 100-mile radius of Fairfield, in the Freestone oil region of Central Texas. Their 60-unit fleet is anticipated to use approximately 1.2 million gallons of LNG annually. Green Energy Oilfield Services is committed to acquiring and deploying fleets comprised exclusively of LNG-powered trucks and anticipate acquiring an additional 140 heavy duty natural gas trucks by the end of 2013. 

The awards were presented Oct.r 5th at NGVAmerica’s 2012 NGV Conference and Summit at the Renaissance Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, Illinois.

NGVAmerica is a national organization dedicated to the development of a growing, sustainable and profitable market for vehicles powered by natural gas or biomethane. NGVAmerica represents more than 120 companies interested in the promotion and use of natural gas and biomethane as transportation fuels, including: engine, vehicle and equipment manufacturers; fleet operators and service providers; natural gas companies; and environmental groups and government organizations. For more information about NGVAmerica, visit  www.ngvamerica.org