CNG fueling stations open; may spur car sales
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The natural-gas station for vehicles at 2926 Smallman St. in the Strip District.
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Soon, it'll be much easier in Pennsylvania to buy a car that runs on compressed natural gas. And if local companies and officials in Harrisburg have anything to say about it, you might even be able to find a place to fuel it.
A nonexistent CNG market in the Pittsburgh region went into turbo drive this past month, with EQT Corp. opening a compressed natural gas fueling site on Smallman Street in the Strip District and Giant Eagle unveiling a location at a processing facility in Crafton. The new stations are meant to help solve the "chicken and the egg" problem of not selling many CNG cars because there aren't places to fill them up.
Just last week, a report sent to Gov. Tom Corbett on handling the natural gas industry cited CNG fueling stations as a necessary component in using the energy source that is being extracted from the Marcellus Shale formation under Western Pennsylvania.
The local stations received government support. Giant Eagle received $900,000 in a state government grant for its Crafton site, and EQT was subsidized with a $700,000 grant.
As part of its proposed blueprint on handling the industry, the governor's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission suggests developing "Green Corridors" for natural gas vehicles. A "Green Corridor" would place CNG or liquefied natural gas stations every 50 miles, and within two miles of designated highways.
The use of CNG "can assist in addressing air quality ... especially in larger, urban locales," the commission said.
Lawmakers also see a chance to keep the Marcellus supply within state lines, but it's hard to say exactly where the natural gas sold at the EQT station originates, said David Ross, director of business development at the Downtown-based firm.
"We don't tag the molecules," he said.
It took about six weeks to tear down a building in the Strip District to make way for the new station. The actual station construction only took about a month, in part because the only underground component is a distribution pipe that transports the gas, Mr. Ross said.
After opening on July 19, a Tuesday, the station saw 16 transactions from the following Thursday through the weekend.
In Utah, CNG fueling stations are built into pre-existing, traditional gas stations and offer CNG gas as an option next to regular or diesel.
First Published July 27, 2011 12:00 am
