A company is making a major investment in three natural gas fueling stations in West Virginia along the I-79 corridor. IGS Energy CNG Services plans to spend $10 million in the next few months to build stations in Charleston, Jane Lew, Bridgeport and Mt. Morris, PA.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin helped make the announcement Thursday on the site of one of the future stations at the Foodland on Spring Street in Charleston.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones (center) talks about the advantages of natural gas fueling stations. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (left) and Chesapeake Energy's Phil Pfister (right) also spoke.
“[It's] the beginning of the infrastructure necessary to support our state’s conversion to natural gas fueled vehicles,” according to Tomblin.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper says the project is a win/win for everyone involved.
“It’s one of those things that sounds too good to be true but it actually is true!”
West Virginia has an abundance of natural gas. That made IGS/CNG’s decision to invest in the four stations along I-79 an easy choice.
Carper believes once the public realizes the benefits compressed natural gas compared to gasoline and diesel, they’ll be ready to buy a CNG-fueled vehicle of their own.
“The fact that we spend billions of dollars a year importing fuel from the Middle East that doesn’t burn that clean to begin with, instead we can use our own natural gas right here at about 40-percent less cost,” according to Carper.
Currently the average cost for a gallon of regular unleaded gas here in West Virginia is $3.43. The price for the same amount of CNG is $2.10. That price is not expected to increase anytime in the near future.
One of the big questions about CNG-fueled vehicles is how they compare ride-wise to their gas counterparts.
“You can not tell the difference. There is absolutely no difference in power, performance. The only difference is that it is natural gas from here,” Carper said.
Construction is set to begin on the fueling stations in the next couple of months. They should be open for business before the end of September.
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Comments
Habib Haddad
This is great news. I hope this is just the beginning of breaking our dependence of imported oil.
January 17, 2013 at 1:50 pm | Report comment
John Bess
when will the cars be ready to buy so we can use the fueling stations?
January 17, 2013 at 2:13 pm | Report comment
Shane
It's great to have a cleaner fuel, but I wouldn't count on that price because there are not that many natural gas vehicles so not much demand. When the demand goes up, so will the price. And probably up to or past gas prices.
January 17, 2013 at 2:44 pm | Report comment
To The Raleigh
Wait unitl the government gets involved. By the time they are done regulating and taxing, the price will be as much as we pay now for regular gas.
January 17, 2013 at 3:21 pm | Report comment
Jeff
I can remember 15-20 years ago.....that Eastern American Energy's President Frank McCollough tried this endeavor in the state. It was a flop. Why is it now would be any different. The problem is having enough fueling stations around the state to make the prospect feasible.
How is anyone going to commit to CNG as fuel if there is nowhere around to fill up.
January 17, 2013 at 4:27 pm | Report comment
Stephen
At first, most of the vehicles will be larger trucks and fleet vehicles that have duel fuel engines. So if they aren't near one of these stations they can still use gasoline. Over time there will be more non-commerical vehicles that would use these stations.
January 17, 2013 at 6:59 pm | Report comment
bobby
all that would have to be done is the natural gas companies pay part or all of the natural gas pump station insulation, start up cost ,The natural gas would be right beside the gas or diesel pumps we have now, you make the choice, the reason they are changing over right now is the danger of the oil supply being interrupted in the middle east especially Iran, that's the difference now., it is a real threat, it's not if it is going to happen it is a mater of when. natural gas is the answer and has been the answer along with hydrogen fuel will be next fuel option, id say oil will one day be the cheapest cause of all the other options west Virginia's Leadership should be praised for there foresight and commitment to change, this is a coal driven state with the struggling mines this is the time to go for it
January 18, 2013 at 10:37 pm | Report comment
Ryan
The reason it is different this time around is because we are sitting on shale gas supply that was unknown and unreachable 15-20 years ago that has led to a record supply of natural gas and record low prices for natural gas. The shale gas has changed the dynamics of the industry so much that natural gas prices will remain stable. With a large portion of oil supplies controlled by OPEC and demand for oil skyrocketing because of the development of India and China, oil prices will most likely never go down. The great thing about CNG is that the price of the commodity of natural gas is actually a small portion of the actual price you will see on the sign. As a result, even if prices go up a dollar an MCF, you would only see 13 cent difference per gge. This is the wave of the future and will allow us to use a local resource and not put money in the pockets of terrorists.
January 17, 2013 at 5:54 pm | Report comment
John Q
This would be great as long as your plan is to travel the I-79 corridor, otherwise your range will be limited. I can't see purchasing a vehicle that can basically only be used in state along that route and another for other trips.
This will be a great service to government fleets and private companies working in the state, but I don't yet see it as a boon for the every man.
I'll also wait to see how involved government decides it wants to be involved in this. They aren't known for having a Midas touch.
January 17, 2013 at 8:08 pm | Report comment