Portage continues moving garbage truck fleet to compressed natural ... - Lakeshore Public Media
Portage continues moving garbage truck fleet to compressed natural gas
The city of Portage continues moving its fleet of garbage trucks to compressed natural gas. The city recently purchased seven CNG trucks with a grant from the Indiana Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund.
Street Superintendent Randy Reeder says the city showed some of them off during its Fourth of July parade and has launched a naming contest for Portage fourth and fifth graders. "We've got one, 'Oscar's New Can,'" Reeder told the city council Wednesday. "That's our mini-loader."
Reeder said another $4.55 million has been allocated to the effort through the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission. That will include funding for about four new CNG trucks next year and a CNG station in 2025.
"That's a great revenue from there that we've taken advantage of, and that is an 80/20 match," Reeder added.
Switching from diesel to CNG trucks is seen as a way to reduce costs, while lowering carbon emissions.
Related Knowledge Center: Liquefied natural gas
Driven by plentiful natural gas produced from shale plays, the United States began exporting liquefied natural gas in 2016 when the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana opened and shipped its first cargo. Since then, additional capacity, or trains, have been added to Sabine Pass, and terminals have become operational in Cameron Parish, La.; Hackberry, La.; Cove Point, Md.; and Corpus Christi, Texas. The Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. LNG export capacity will reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by the end of 2019, making it the third largest in the world, behind Australia and Qatar. The tariff war with China has the potential to impact some final investment decisions for additional terminals in the coming months.