Bossier City planning to build public, natural gas pumps
By Drew Pierson • dpierson@gannett.com • May 27, 2009
As gas prices creep up slowly, Bossier City officials are working to get natural gas pumps in the city for the public.
"I'm very anxious to see it happen," said Bossier City Mayor Lorenz "Lo" Walker. "I think it's the smart thing to do."
Supporting a trend of cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and trucks in America is something the mayor wants to do, along with possibly saving the city and taxpayers some money. Natural gas can be much cheaper than gasoline for vehicles to run on, sometimes costing a third less for an equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.
As is the rest of the area, Bossier City is sitting on one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world — the Haynesville Shale.
The city of Shreveport in March announced plans to get some buses that run on natural gas and construct a fueling station at the SporTran office in Shreveport. At the time, officials said the city would consider selling natural gas from its planned fueling station to private businesses and other buyers.
Bossier City is discussing putting natural gas pumps in the city for public use.
Bossier City plans to spend $24,000 to hire a consultant, Public Solutions Group, of Grapevine, Texas, to perform a study on how to best implement the plan. Walker said he envisioned putting one pumping station in the Public Service Complex off of old Shed Road, where Bossier houses its utility vehicles, for the city's fleet of 800 or so vehicles, not all of which would be retrofitted. Walker said he would like to see a "significant" amount of vehicles in the city's possession be ready to use natural gas, though he said the city did not yet know how many, exactly. Police cars would not be retrofitted for natural gas.
While city vehicles prepare to run on natural gas, Walker said he would like to then see two additional pumps added, one in the northern part of the city, and one in the southern part, ready to be used for public vehicles.
Besides natural gas pumps, the city envisions making these pumping stations ready to dispense at least ethanol fuels in addition to natural gas, said Rodney Oar, director of Fleet Services for Bossier City.
"It's a perfect compliment to legislative activities taking place both in Baton Rouge as well as Washington," said Kevin McCotter, director of corporate development for northwest Louisiana for the Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
McCotter was referring in part to a bill, pending in the state Legislature by state Rep. Jane Smith, R-Bossier City, that would provide some income tax credits for residents who either convert their vehicle to run on natural gas, or buy a vehicle that runs on natural gas.
Walker said he did not have a timeline for when the pumping stations could be built, or details like which companies would provide the natural gas.
"Many other countries throughout the world use natural gas in their vehicles," McCotter said. "It's an easy movement to support.
As gas prices creep up slowly, Bossier City officials are working to get natural gas pumps in the city for the public.
"I'm very anxious to see it happen," said Bossier City Mayor Lorenz "Lo" Walker. "I think it's the smart thing to do."
Supporting a trend of cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and trucks in America is something the mayor wants to do, along with possibly saving the city and taxpayers some money. Natural gas can be much cheaper than gasoline for vehicles to run on, sometimes costing a third less for an equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.
As is the rest of the area, Bossier City is sitting on one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world — the Haynesville Shale.
The city of Shreveport in March announced plans to get some buses that run on natural gas and construct a fueling station at the SporTran office in Shreveport. At the time, officials said the city would consider selling natural gas from its planned fueling station to private businesses and other buyers.
Bossier City is discussing putting natural gas pumps in the city for public use.
Bossier City plans to spend $24,000 to hire a consultant, Public Solutions Group, of Grapevine, Texas, to perform a study on how to best implement the plan. Walker said he envisioned putting one pumping station in the Public Service Complex off of old Shed Road, where Bossier houses its utility vehicles, for the city's fleet of 800 or so vehicles, not all of which would be retrofitted. Walker said he would like to see a "significant" amount of vehicles in the city's possession be ready to use natural gas, though he said the city did not yet know how many, exactly. Police cars would not be retrofitted for natural gas.
While city vehicles prepare to run on natural gas, Walker said he would like to then see two additional pumps added, one in the northern part of the city, and one in the southern part, ready to be used for public vehicles.
Besides natural gas pumps, the city envisions making these pumping stations ready to dispense at least ethanol fuels in addition to natural gas, said Rodney Oar, director of Fleet Services for Bossier City.
"It's a perfect compliment to legislative activities taking place both in Baton Rouge as well as Washington," said Kevin McCotter, director of corporate development for northwest Louisiana for the Chesapeake Energy Corporation.
McCotter was referring in part to a bill, pending in the state Legislature by state Rep. Jane Smith, R-Bossier City, that would provide some income tax credits for residents who either convert their vehicle to run on natural gas, or buy a vehicle that runs on natural gas.
Walker said he did not have a timeline for when the pumping stations could be built, or details like which companies would provide the natural gas.
"Many other countries throughout the world use natural gas in their vehicles," McCotter said. "It's an easy movement to support.
Views: 41
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Catfish on -
This is good news. When gasoline gets back up to three and four dollars a gallon more will see the benifits to conversion.
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Permalink Reply by OGCalifornia on
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Hi Braveheart,
I saw for the first time here California a natural gas refueling station for the public. There are only 2 pumps. I stopped and took pictures with my cell phone. I chatted with the guy who was refueling, he said he can fill his car for about $10.00. I asked him if he had converted his car to run on CNG he said no. I didn't ask, but he volunteered that reason CNG is not being used more is strictly political. The buses here are using CNG as well. I will try later today to share the pictures.
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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on
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Cng currently is cheaper per mile, but the cost to convert is prohibative. A new cng Honda is 5-8000 more than the standard model. Add that to limited refueling stations (sure you might have one near home, but what about when you want to hit the road?) and we have serious roadblocks. But i agree with Catfish, when gasoline goes back up to $4/gallon cng will start to look pretty good.
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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on
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1 MCF is equal to about 8 gallons gasoline.
so $4 gas = $0.50 gallon. This would be assuming that gas was sold about cost (it won't be) and without taxes. I wouldn't be suprised to see the govenment try to pass on the fuel tax to cng customers. Tax varies by state with 18.5 cents per gallon being federal.
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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on
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I believe LA is 38.4 bents per gallon. Still a hell of deal on regular gas. But the residential rate is still above $10/mcf.
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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bump - Now appearing on the 10:00 news, Ch. 3. They report city officials expect it to become a reality in 3-4 years. Now if that HR mentioned back in the political group can get out of committee and "on the road" to a signature, we'll be in business. Thanks, Baron.
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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on
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3-4 years?? I know government moves at its own pace but this is ridiculas!
The city/partish can start building a cyber invovation center for the tune of 50 million before the desision on the command is made (which by the way we aren't getting), but they will take 3-4 years to build 3 fueling stations? I understand it will take time to convert the city fleet to cng (personally I think they should only replace standard gasoline with cng as they vehicles wear out), but why not build the stations now? Why not partner up with the private sector, the city could provide low or no cost finacing, along with a garantee that a certain % of the city fleet will be cng and use the stations and leace the day to day operations to exisitng companies, better yet existing fueling stations to be upgraded.
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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Baron - Here's a link to PSG. They seem to be focusing on this area of consultation.
http://www.publicsolutionsgroup.com/
Perhaps the reporter stated 3-4 yrs. to be conservative? In the second to the last paragraph, Walker says he has no idea of the timeline. Yeah, the Cyber Center was built prematurely, but in all honesty they really were kind of given the "nod." Maybe BPCC can find a use for it? lol
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