With help from the state, two companies are working on opening the first public natural gas refueling station in Western Pennsylvania.

Now they just need customers.

The state Department of Environmental Protection awarded Equitable Gas a $700,000 grant to build a public natural gas refueling station by the end of March at a yet-to-be-determined location in the Strip District. DEP also awarded Giant Eagle $900,000 to buy 10 natural gas vehicles and build another public refueling station in Crafton.

The grants aim to stimulate interest in natural gas vehicles, which officials say put out fewer emissions than gasoline-powered vehicles and are cheaper to fill up.

"People aren't going to buy compressed natural gas vehicles if it's not convenient or they don't have a place to go refuel," DEP spokesman John Repetz said. "By offering incentives, we're going to give them a place to refuel. More vehicles will be purchased, and the industry will expand."

There are about 110,000 natural gas vehicles — for fleet and personal use — being used in the United States, according to Denise McCourt, spokeswoman for the Natural Gas Vehicles for America, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

DEP does not track how many natural gas vehicles there are statewide. Honda plans to make its natural gas-powered Civic GX available for individual purchase at dealerships by the end of the year, spokeswoman Jessica Fini said. Honda hasn't sold any natural gas Civics in Pennsylvania, where it is available for purchase only as part of a fleet, she said.

A shift toward using natural gas to power vehicles is gaining momentum, especially with the discovery of the Marcellus shale rock formation in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York, experts said.

"Marcellus shale is a game changer," McCourt said. "The reality that we're producing so much natural gas has really made people rethink what we should be doing in the future."

Equitable, which has one natural gas vehicle, will use its station to fuel 32 more natural gas vehicles it plans to buy, as well as other companies' fleets. The natural gas would come directly from one of Equitable's pipelines, spokesman Scott Waitlevertch said.

"If we're going to grow this whole concept, we have to match supply and demand," he said. "The first thing we can do is to have those fleet operators be able to have a facility to refuel."

Giant Eagle spokesman Dick Roberts said the grocer plans to build a station in the Crafton area that will fuel its fleet and potentially those of other area companies.

There are 24 natural gas refueling stations in the state, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Five — all in Eastern Pennsylvania — are for public use.

The cost difference between natural gas and gasoline is about $1 per equivalent gallon, according to the Department of Energy.

That can mean thousands of dollars to someone like Les Reshenberg, fleet maintenance manager for Connellsville-based Stone & Company, which is testing a cement mixer that runs on natural gas.

"There are weeks when we can burn 7,000 gallons," Reshenberg said.

It's only a matter of time until natural gas vehicles catch on, McCourt said.

"We're seeing more and more natural gas fleets," she said, "and passenger cars will follow."

Buck