As the price of gas creeps up past $4 a gallon, Americans are showing renewed interest in alternative fuels. With all of the marketing hoopla surrounding the battery-operated hybrid vehicles, many other alternatives are left in the shadows. Take for example, the Natural Gas Vehicle (NGVs) . (These vehicles are also known as Compressed Gas Vehicles or CNGs.) There are about 112,000 NGVs in the U.S. today, a fraction of the 12 million being driven worldwide. However, that number is growing ever year, particularly among business and government fleets. The International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles estimates that there will be more than 50 million natural gas vehicles worldwide within the next 10 years, or about 9 percent of the world transportation fleets.


As a clean burning fuel with lower emissions than gas-fueled vehicles, proponents of natural gas argue that NGVs can reduce our carbon footprint, while weaning Americans from its dependency on oil. Equally as important to consumers is the cost of natural gas. On average, natural gas costs one-third less than conventional gasoline and 42% less than diesel fuel.


While individual consumers are slower in coming to the market, municipalities and industrial fleet owners were quick to take advantage of the economic advantages of operating an NGV. Among the biggest fleet owners of NGVs are:


• Waste collection and transfer vehicles, which account for about 12 percent of total vehicular natural gas use, are the fastest growing NGV segment.


• Transit buses, of which more than half (62%) run on natural gas.


• More than 35 airports in the U.S. who have natural gas vehicles in their own fleets and/or have policies encouraging use by private fleets operating on premises. This fleets account for about 9 percent of total vehicular natural gas use.


Availability of fuel stations and cars are major roadblocks to expanding the use of NGVs in the consumer population. The existing fuelling network is insufficient to serve any significant growth in the number of NGVs on the road. Right not there are only about 1,000 NGV “gas” pumps nationwide, and only half of those are open to the public. One way for drivers to get around the lack of public fueling stations is to install a home fueling device, such as the FuelMaker “Phil”, which is a compressor device that connects to a residential natural gas line.


Currently there are 100 different models NGV available through 30 manufacturers. These included the buses, street sweepers, garbage trucks, and trucks that are part of government and corporate fleets. However a growing number of major automotive manufacturers now offer, or are developing, NGV for the ordinary driver. There are also kits available to convert your gas engine to a natural or compressed gas engine. However, are available only through licensed installers.


Despite all of its benefits, the downside to the expanded use of NGVs is the long term outlook for the supply of natural gas. Some experts estimate that, at current levels of use, there is about 60 years of supply left. As we expand use of natural gas into the cars and fleet vehicles, that supply could disappear sooner. Eventually the Americans could become dependent upon foreign sources, and we could end up with a different energy crisis.