By Brian Ahern • bahern@thespectrum.com • Published: March 24. 2011 3:03PM - Last modified: March 24. 2011 3:28PM

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Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A WASHINGTON – With gasoline prices closing in on $4 per gallon, Washington City moved one step closer to converting its fleet of vehicles to natural gas by opening the city’s first natural gas refueling station Thursday.



Washington City Public Works Director Mike Shaw said 6 of the city’s 117 vehicles have been converted, with a seventh on the way. It might take 10 to 20 years to get them all done, but he added the financial and environmental benefits make it worth the trouble.
The price equivalence of natural gas during Thursday’s ceremony was $1.27 per gallon, a dramatic difference when compared to its gasoline counterpart.


Add in the fact that natural gas vehicles last longer and require less maintenance, and Shaw said it’s practically a no-brainer.


“One of the other driving forces is clean air,” he said. “We are on the verge of having to have emissions (standards) on vehicles here.”


The $378,000 new facility is the fourth natural gas station in Washington County, and was developed through a $14.9 million federal stimulus grant to the Utah Clean Cities Coalition. Shaw said federal and state funds also went toward the conversion of the city’s six natural gas vehicles.


Attending Thursday’s grand opening was a variety of state and local leaders, including Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, and Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake City mayor and current chief environmental advisor to Gov. Gary Herbert.


Both men said Washington City was at the forefront of a national natural gas revolution.


“We’ll think back on this day in Washington City as the day it all started,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to have cleaner fuel. This station is representing that.”


Urquhart added that Utah’s abundance of natural gas would help sever the lopsided import of foreign oil from volatile regions of the world.


“Energy independence is something so vital to our national security,” he said. “I think we break away from that one station at a time.”


The Washington City ceremony comes two days after Utah’s first liquefied natural gas station opened in Salt Lake City thanks to the same federal grant. Utah Clean Cities Southern Central Director Robin Erickson said St. George is on the short list when it comes to opening the next one.


Armed with the stimulus money and a public desperately seeking alternatives to paying $4 per gallon, Erickson said Utah is putting 600 alternative fuel vehicles on the road and is hoping to supply 300 related jobs.


That means a lot when trying to spark a national movement.


“We are the leading state right now that has the most consumers using alternative fuel,” she said.


And now they have one more place to fill up in Washington City


Buck