By Tom,
posted on Thursday, March 31, 2011.
Tomorrow, President Obama will visit a UPS shipping facility
near Washington, DC, to check out energy-efficient vehicles
operated by major U.S. companies. On hand will be delivery vans and
service trucks from not only UPS, but also AT&T, Verizon.
What do they have in common? They're all powered by
clean, American natural gas.
More and more across America today, leading U.S. companies are
embracing use of this clean domestic fuel to save money, reduce
emissions and advance U.S. energy security. UPS has one of
the largest private fleets of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles
in the country, with more than 1,000 package-delivery vehicles.
The company also recently announced the purchase of 48 new
liquefied natural gas (LNG) tractors, and it is working closely
with the Department of Energy's Clean Cities program to build an
LNG fueling station in Las Vegas.
AT&T also just announced that it
will deploy 101 Chevrolet Express Cargo 2500 natural gas-powered
vans. With more than 2,000 natural gas vehicles already on the road
today, AT&T has committed to transitioning its fleet to include
an estimated 8,000 NGVs. Verizon, too, has converted more than 500
Ford vans to CNG and Ryder recently
announced an order of 202 heavy-duty natural gas vehicles.
President Obama is right to stop by UPS and kick the tires.
As our nation looks for ways to clear the air in our
communities and reduce our dependence on foreign energy, natural
gas as a transportation fuel holds extraordinary promise.
According to the Federal Reserve Economic Database, our
nation spent $32.6 billion on imported oil in January, most of
which came from politically tumultuous nations. Yet, our nation has
more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil. Natural gas also
burns cleaner than other fuel sources. In fact, converting just one
trash truck from diesel to natural gas is the pollution reduction
equivalent of taking 325 cars off the road.
Thanks UPS, AT&T, Verizon and Ryder for driving change and
helping lead our nation to a cleaner and more secure energy future.
The only question left: Who's next?