Sept. 13, 2014

Virginia Cleans up With Natural Gas Refuse Trucks (Text Version)

This is a text version of the video segment Virginia Cleans up With Natural Gas Refuse Trucks, which aired on Sept. 13, 2014.

JOHN DAVIS: Our success story this week comes from Richmond, Virginia, where compressed natural gas refuse trucks are a common sight. The city has acquired 25 high-compaction CNG trucks along with two natural gas-fueled Honda Civics.

Federal incentives and support from Virginia Clean Cities helped offset vehicle cost. A private 13-stall CNG fueling station was also built to automatically time-fill vehicles overnight. City officials say the environmental benefits of CNG are huge. Their refuse trucks emit less carbon dioxide and soot than diesel with big savings in fuel cost.

CHRIS BESCHLER: Over the two years that we've had the refuse trucks, we've saved approximately $400,000 in fuel costs, about $200,000 annually. And we've displaced just shy of 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

JOHN DAVIS: The city-owned gas utility serves the Greater Richmond Transit Company and the city fleet's fast-fill CNG stations and works to encourage other fleets to adopt CNG vehicles. That makes Richmond one clean, green capital city.

Search for another case study