Domestic Fuel

Alliance AutoGas has added five new certified conversion centers in Virginia, Florida, Georgia and Texas to their national network of partners that offer complete programs for America’s fleets to run on clean-burning propane autogas.

Ark Enterprises 2, Braggs Truck Repair, Green Tech Energy Solutions, Grimes Auto Service Inc., and NDMJ Transportation are joining Alliance to provide fleets with EPA-certified autogas vehicle conversions, as well as ongoing service and technical support.

“From Virginia to Texas, these new partners help strengthen Alliance AutoGas as we continue expanding nationwide, helping our nation’s fleets save money and drive clean,” says Stuart Weidie, president of Alliance Autogas and founder of Autogas for America.

Certified Alliance AutoGas conversion centers are equipped to implement both bi-fuel and dedicated propane vehicle conversions using Prins vapor and liquid injection technology. Alliance has the largest privately financed portfolio of autogas vehicle certifications in the U.S., with more than 200 vehicle types eligible for autogas conversions.

Fleets that convert to autogas will save on both fuel and maintenance costs. Because autogas is a cleaner-burning fuel than gasoline, many fleets report reduced maintenance needs for vehicles, like fewer oil changes and an extended engine life. Alliance AutoGas provides leasing and financing options that allow fleets to start saving immediately, with zero up-front cost—including for an on-site autogas station.The new Alliance conversion center partners include:

Ark Enterprises 2 in Churchville, VA; Braggs Truck Repair in Berryville, VA; NDMJ Ltd. Transportation of Tyler, Texas;
Green Tech Energy Solutions in Miami, FL; and Grimes Auto Service of Tifton, GA.

Attendees of the McCoy Freightliner Green Transportation Conference in Oregon were able to see and hear firsthand the benefits of propane autogas from Blue Star Gas President Jeff Stewart.

Stewart provided expert insights and three BlueStar autogas vehicles for test driving. The conference also included informational sessions on autogas and other alternative fuels, along with details on grants, tax credits and financing for shifting fleets to clean fuel.

Propane autogas is the third most widely used fuel in the world, powering more than 17 million vehicles globally. Ninety percent of the U.S. supply is made in America. Autogas costs about $1.25 less per gallon than gasoline, and because autogas is also a cleaner burning fuel, fleets often experience reduced maintenance costs.

As the flagship West Coast fuel provider for Alliance AutoGas, Blue Star Gas supplies fleets from California to Washington State with affordable, American-made autogas. A variety of experts, policy makers and manufacturers from organizations such as Eaton Corporation, Freightliner Trucks and Cascade Sierra Solutions were also on-hand at the event to offer valuable insight on current green options for the trucking industry.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to educate leaders in the Oregon transportation industry about autogas. It’s an ideal clean fuel for light-duty fleets that’s readily available today,” said Stewart, a past chairman of the National Propane Gas Association Benchmarking Council. “With so many green energy options on the market, it can be overwhelming to identify the best fuel to power your fleet. But, for those who want to save money and reduce harmful emissions without sacrificing performance, autogas is the ideal fuel.”

BlueStar Gas vehicles available for test drives during the event included an autogas-powered Ford Expedition, a Ford Crown Victoria and a Chevy 3500 utility truck.

“Events like the conference held by McCoy Freightliner help spread awareness about autogas one driver at a time, since they are able to discover first-hand the power of autogas vehicles,” said Stewart. “In fact, Blue Star provides test drives and demonstrations for West Coast fleet owners and managers on an ongoing basis. There’s no better way to experience the performance of an autogas vehicle than by getting behind the wheel of one.”

GROWMARK and FS Energy have given a whole new meaning to energy efficiency with the wireless Energy Business System (wEBS) which has streamlined their fuel delivery system.

GROWMARK Information Management Solutions director Keith Milburn says wEBS was developed as a fuel billing solution that makes the record keeping process easier by providing instantaneous information such as fuel type, tank sizes, taxes and credits.

Milburn says they developed wEBS when the fuel business started to get more complicated a few years ago. “We no longer just handle gasoline and diesel,” he said. “We have high sulfur, low sulfur, bio or soy diesel, ethanol blends – and all the relevant taxes have made it very complicated given those combination of blends.”

“There’s two components of wEBS,” Milburn says. “There’s the back office or centralized data set and then the hand held on the truck level.” The back office includes not only customer information, but every tank that each delivery truck services. “The system identifies each tank with a bar code that tells who the customer is, what product types, relevant taxes, discounts, and if there have fuel contracted at a certain price,” Milburn explains. So all the delivery driver has to do is pump the fuel and within minutes the transaction is recorded and an email confirmation is sent to the customer.

Milburn says this “evolution in the energy business” was first introduced as a pilot program in January 2010 with two trucks and it has since grown to incorporate about 95 trucks that essentially function as mobile hot spots to communicate information. And he says the system is continuing to evolve with the technology.

Find out more about the wEBS system in this interview with Keith Milburn here: Keith Milburn Interview

The U.S. Postal Service may be in the red but they’ve been promoting going green this holiday season.

“The Postal Service is one of the greenest mailing and shipping companies in the world,” said Thomas G. Day, chief sustainability officer. The eco-friendly options offered by USPS include mailing and shipping supplies, free package pickup and holiday cards printed on recycled paper available in 2,000 Post Offices.

“We have a ‘fleet of feet’ delivering mail the greenest way possible, by walking,” Day added. “Nearly 9,000 of our carriers will be delivering holiday mail on foot this season. And we also have nearly 80,000 ‘park and loop’ routes, where carriers will drive vehicles from the Post Office to neighborhoods and then deliver those holiday packages and cards on foot.”

The Postal Service will have delivered a total of 16.5 billion cards, letters and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve using various alternative fuel vehicles in the largest civilian fleet in the world of 215,000 vehicles. Alternatives utilized by USPS include three-wheeled electric vehicles with zero gas emissions that operate at a cost of only 2 cents a mile, as well as vehicles that can operate on compressed natural gas, propane, ethanol, and fuel cell. There’s also 30 large all-electric trucks delivering holiday mail in Manhattan.

Alliance AutoGas is now EPA-certified to convert more than 200 vehicle types to propane autogas utilizing the Prins System. The company is a conversion equipment provider and co-founding partner of American Alternative Fuel.

American Alternative Fuel privately funded these EPA certifications to ensure fleet owners and managers nationwide can choose from a wide variety of vehicle makes and models when converting to clean-burning autogas. With more than 200 eligible vehicles, this is the largest privately financed portfolio of autogas vehicle certifications in the United States. New certifications include the latest model years for the popular Ford Crown Victoria and E-series vans and additional certifications for several medium duty GM platforms.

Fleets running on autogas see savings on both fuel and maintenance costs. Autogas is an average of $1.25 per gallon less than gasoline and many Alliance AutoGas fleets report reduced maintenance needs and increased vehicle engine life after shifting to autogas. In addition to the cost-savings benefits of autogas, it is also a clean-burning fuel that is 90 percent domestically produced.

Alliance AutoGas provides both bi-fuel and propane-dedicated conversions using Prins vapor and liquid injection technology. The bi-fuel Prins VSI system gives drivers peace of mind because vehicles automatically switch back to gasoline if the autogas tank runs low when a fueling station cannot be reached.

A police department near Birmingham, Alabama is the latest law enforcement agency to use propane for its cruisers.

The Vestavia Hills, Ala., Police Department recently converted 14 cruisers to autogas as a cost-effective, efficient way to go green, according to Alliance AutoGas which outfitted the Ford Crown Victorias with bi-fuel systems and installed an on-site autogas station to give officers easy fueling access.

“Converting to autogas is simply the most viable solution for law enforcement looking to save money and drive clean, without sacrificing vehicle performance,” says Alliance AutoGas President Stuart Weidie. “Not only is autogas about $1.25 per gallon cheaper than gasoline but vehicle conversions and fueling stations are more affordable compared to other alternative fuels.”

The Vestavia Hills department joins others who have made the switch to propane autogas including sheriff’s departments in Jackson County, Georgia; Augusta County, Va., and Iredell County, North Carolina and police departments in Raleigh, N.C. and West Point, Mississippi.

Propane supplies are in good shape going into the winter, according to Randy Miller, GROWMARK director of propane operations.

Regarding total inventories, Randy says 60 million barrels is the total to shoot for to feel comfortable going into the winter. “And we just did get to 60 million,” he said recently. “We’ve had some pretty good inventory increases the last few weeks.”

He says that Midwest stocks are pretty good, but stocks overall are behind last year and the five year average. “Nothing to feel short about but we are behind some nine percent compared to a year ago,” he said. “Most of that is on the Gulf Coast where we’ve seen a lot of propane exports.”

Propane exports from the U.S. are up this year, although they have dropped off a bit in the last month or so. “But still we are seeing tremendous exports compared to what we’ve ever seen before in history,” Miller said.

GROWMARK is a leading provider of a full range of energy products and services, including a complete line of quality lubricants, fuel and fuel additives, and dependable heating and drying with GROWMARK propane.

Listen to an interview with Randy Miller about propane supplies: Randy Miller Interview

The National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) has released a new study to look at the economic impacts of the Propane Green Autogas Solutions Act of 2011 should it be passed. The Economic Impacts of the Propane Green Autogas Solutions Act of 2011 was performed by ICF International and utilized market data from propane autogas fuel providers, vehicle manufacturers and fleet consumers. The report found that the growth in propane vehicle sales and use created by the tax credits could generate economic activity between $4 and $5.7 billion and provide 30,000 – 42,000 new jobs by 2016.

“H.R. 2014 and S. 1120 would extend for five years federal alternative fuel tax credits for propane used as a motor fuel, propane autogas vehicles and propane autogas refueling equipment,” said NPGA President and CEO Richard Roldan. “The Propane GAS Act offers certainty to the marketplace to further solidify propane autogas as a competitive alternative transportation fuel.”

“Autogas vehicle market incentives are good fiscal policy. The Propane GAS Act provides incentives to make the switch to an American-made alternative fuel and with clear policy benefits,” added Roldan who concluded by noting that in the short-term, no one fuel can displace conventional fuels but propane autogas can have an immediate impact.

One of the benefits of membership in the GROWMARK cooperative system is daily information about the energy markets and recommendations on contracting fuel at different times of the year.

Harry Cooney is manager of customer risk management for GROWMARK Energy and he is constantly keeping an eye on the energy complex, especially gasoline, propane and diesel fuel. He says the primary influences on the energy market lately have been the situation in Europe, the value of the dollar and the stock market.

“In the past six months to a year, there’s been a strong connection between the stock markets and the energy markets,” Cooney said. “When things look bad in Europe, then our stock market tends to fall off and when the stock market falls off the energy markets tend to fall off.” He says world events in the currency and stock markets and whether the economy is strengthening or weakening have more impact on energy markets than public policy decisions, like the blenders tax credit for ethanol and the Renewable Fuels Standard.

In the diesel market, Cooney says we are seeing strong demand and falling stocks. “Diesel stocks have fallen under the five year average for the first time in many months,” he said. “The economy is starting to come around so stocks are coming down and diesel demand is back well over the five year average after just bottoming in July.”

As propane users look ahead to contracting for 2012, Cooney says they are currently making recommendations for summer through winter of next year. “Given the somewhat tight stocks situation and the fact that crude oil tends to want to go up, it makes us want to be a buyer of propane,” he said.

Listen to my interview with Harry Cooney here: Harry Cooney Interview

Blue Star Gas is planning to break ground on a new propane autogas station and distribution facility in the Puget Sound region of Tukwila, Wash.

Blue Star already has autogas stations across California and Oregon but this will be the first in Washington state. “The Blue Star Gas facility in Tukwila now extends the reach of our propane distribution and fueling operations on the West Coast,” says Blue Star Gas President Jeff Stewart. “With this location, we will deliver Puget Sound fleets and the public the most economical and environmentally friendly alternative fuel available today and meet the needs of those who want to save money while enhancing national energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Blue Star is a partner in Alliance Autogas, an integrated network that includes propane retailers, premier equipment providers and certified conversion centers.

In the home, on the farm, for businesses or for school buses, the Energy Division of GROWMARK is seeing the use of propane growing as a domestically produced, environmentally friendly fuel.

Marion Ertmer, GROWMARK Propane Marketing Manager, says some people may still think of propane as an import from the Middle East, but that’s no longer true. “Today, with the emerging sources of propane in North America, we’re actually not importing propane as a fuel, we actually have an exporting trend on propane,” he said, adding that it is a very clean fuel, similar to natural gas. “The net carbon footprint is actually much less than electricity,” said Ertmer.

Ertmer says home use of propane is also more economical than electricity. “Propane is actually about half the cost of electricity,” he said. He notes that with a propane heat and a propane-powered generator, you can be warm and have light even if the electricity goes out. “You’re never out of power with propane,” he said.

Of course, farmers are big users of propane, especially during harvest season for drying their grain, but Ertmer says the use of propane as a fuel for vehicles is an increasing new use. “Particularly school systems are looking at this for their buses,” he said, both for environmental and economic reasons. “There’s a tremendous savings on a per mile cost with propane and that’s a way for school districts to save money on their school bus fleets.”

GROWMARK sells about 300 million gallons of propane a year mainly in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa and is also involved in marketing wholesale propane in other parts of the country.

Listen to an interview with Marion Ertmer here: GROWMARK Propane Marketing Manager Marion Ertmer

Fyda Energy Solutions has expanded its alternative fuel service offerings to include propane autogas vehicle conversions, joining the Alliance AutoGas network as the newest certified conversion center. The green technology arm of nationally recognized truck dealership Fyda Freightliner, Fyda Energy Solutions will work with a variety of fleet vehicles in the Northeast—from police cruisers to taxi cabs to cargo vans—to help them run on clean, affordable, American-made autogas.

Fyda Energy Solutions specializes in retrofitting vehicles to run on alternative fuels, as well as providing maintenance support for fleets. The company was formed with the goal of reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, promoting clean air and ultimately supporting the fleet industry with affordable clean fuel options.

“Fyda Energy Solutions recognizes the importance of reducing costs for fleet owners and managers, while also positively impacting national energy security and the environment,” said Fyda Energy Solutions Director of Business Development, Tim Hooker. “As a new partner in the Alliance AutoGas complete program, we’re proud to be part of an innovative solution for cleaner energy that offers great savings for fleets.”

“Fyda Energy Solutions is a leading provider of alternative fuel technologies for the fleet industry, and they will be a vital part of the Alliance mission to run more American fleets on environmentally friendly, affordable autogas,” says Stuart Weidie, president of Alliance AutoGas and founder of industry coalition, Autogas for America. “Saving money on fuel without losing power or range makes autogas a smart choice for fleets—and because it’s domestically produced, it’s also a smart choice for enhancing U.S. energy security.”

Autogas is 90 percent made in America, so fleets running on this clean fuel are doing their part to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Autogas is $1 less per gallon than gasoline, and the cost of autogas fueling infrastructure and conversions is significantly more affordable compared to other alternative fuels.

Confiscated drug money is helping to clean up the community of Iredell County, North Carolina by putting propane-fueled law enforcement vehicles on the road.

Iredell County Sheriff Phillip Redmond recently had 13 Ford Crown Victoria cruisers converted to run on propane autogas using money confiscated from illegal drug activity.

“We put dirty money to good use by re-purposing seized assets from our drug interdiction program to match grant funding for the autogas conversions,” says Sheriff Redmond, pictured here preparing to fill up one of the converted cruisers at a propane autogas pump.

Nationwide network Alliance AutoGas provided the conversions and autogas fueling infrastructure. The autogas conversions are estimated to save the county about 40 percent in fuel costs, in addition to reduced maintenance expenses and the Sheriff’s Office is reportedly so pleased with the autogas vehicle performance, they are converting 13 additional vehicles this fall and hope to eventually run 50 fleet vehicles on autogas.

Ethanol, biodiesel, propane, natural gas, electricity – even regular gasoline – consumers should have choices at the pump and a new campaign is urging lawmakers in Washington to make that happen.

More than 20 worldwide leaders in the effort to commercialize next-generation transportation fuels today announced the new campaign, called FuelChoiceNow. Among the companies that have joined the effort are Abengoa Bioenergy, Battery Ventures, Propel Fuels, and Qteros.

“The purpose behind FuelChoiceNow is to promote consumer choice at the pump,” said Susan Hager, vice president of corporate communications and government affairs for Qteros. “The advocacy group does not promote one alternative fuel over another, we’re here to advocate for consumer choice.”

The group intends to educate and urge lawmakers to enact policies that promote open fuel markets in the United States. “Today in the United States, the transportation fuel market is not an open market, it’s not competitive,” Hager said. “What we’re advocating is room for innovation and new technologies for consumers to choose from.”

FuelChoiceNow has launched a website, along with a Facebook fan page and Twitter account, to encourage a grassroots effort toward expanding fuel choices.

Listen to or download interview with Susan Hager here. Susan Hager of Qteros

A CCSE Residential Energy Roadshow has kicked off an 18-week tour in San Diego, California designed to “educate and inspire” Southern Californians to learn more about energy saving technologies, alternative fuel transportation and energy efficiency. The sponsors are the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE), ROUSH CleanTech and Ferrellgas.

“Thanks to generous donations from ROUSH CleanTech and Ferrellgas, hundreds of thousands of Californians will be able to learn about home energy efficiency, solar energy and the products and incentives available to them when visiting the mobile exhibit,” said Irene Stillings, CCSE executive director. “This is a perfect example of how multiple clean technologies can work together to demonstrate energy savings, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote more sustainable practices.”

The tour includes a trailer that is being towed by a Ford F-250 pickup converted to run on propane autogas. When the truck needs to fill up, it will roll on into one of Ferrellgas’s 200 propane stations to refuel. In addition to ROUSH and Ferrallgas, the tour is also funded with money from the Department of Energy’s BetterBuildings Neighborhood program along with two state programs: Energy Upgrade California and go Solar California!

“Ferrellgas is proud to partner with the California Center for Sustainable Energy and ROUSH CleanTech to educate Californians about ways to save money and the environment by implementing energy efficiency solutions in their homes and at their businesses,” said George Koloroutis, president of Ferrell North America and senior vice president of Ferrellgas. “As the nation’s leading propane retailer, we’ve been doing just that for more than 70 years.”

Todd Mouw, vice president of sales and marketing for ROUSH said that this is a great way demonstrate that propane autogas is the most readily deployable and flexible alternative fuel that can immediately address air concerns.