The Greater Long Island Clean Cities Coalition

Alternative Fueled Vehicle (AFV): A vehicle either designed and manufactured by an original equipment manufacturer or a converted vehicle designed to operate in either dual-fuel, flexible-fuel, or dedicated modes on fuels other than gasoline or diesel. This does not include a conventional vehicle that is limited to operation on blended or reformulated gasoline fuels.

Alternative Fuels: Fuels defined by the Energy Policy Act of 1992, including biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane. Since 1992, when the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) was passed, only one new fuel has been recognized as an alternative fuel under the EPAct petitions provision. P-Series fuels were added to the list of alternative fuels in 1999.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): Commonly referred to as The Recovery Act, the ARRA is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009. $27.2 billion was allocated to energy efficiency and renewable energy research and investment.

B20: A blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel. This is the most common blend used today. Other blends that are also used included B5 and B10.

Barrel: A volumetric unit of measure for crude oil and petroleum products equivalent to 42 U.S. gallons

Bi-fuel: A vehicle with two separate fuel systems designed to run on either an alternative fuel or conventional fuel using only one fuel at a time. See also Dual-Fuel Vehicle and Flexible-Fuel Vehicle.

Biodiesel: A clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Bioethanol: Ethanol that is produced from “cellulosic biomass” such as trees and grasses.

California Air Resources Board (CARB): A State regulatory agency charged with regulating the air quality in California. Air quality regulations established by the Board are often stricter than those set by the Federal Government. States are able to choose to follow the EPA, Federal Government, or CARB regulations. New York States currently follows CARB.

Clean Air Act (CAA): The original Clean Air Act was signed in 1963. The law set emissions standards for stationary sources (e.g., factories, power plants). The CAA was amended several times, most recently in 1990 (P.L. 101-549). The Amendments of 1970 introduced motor vehicle emission standards (e.g., automobiles, trucks). Criteria pollutants included lead, ozone, CO, SO2, NOx, and PM as well as air toxics.

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE): (P.L. 94-163) Law passed in 1975 that set federal fuel economy standards. The CAFE values are an average of city and highway fuel economy test results weighted by a manufacturer for either its car or truck fleet.

Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ): A program funded by the Federal Highway Administration.

CNG: Compressed Natural Gas

Dedicated Vehicle: A vehicle designed to operate solely on one alternative fuel.

DOE: Department of Energy

Dual-Fuel Vehicle: A vehicle designed to operate on a combination of alternative fuel, such as CNG or LPG, and conventional fuel, such as gasoline or diesel. These vehicles have two separate fuel systems which inject both fuels simultaneously into the engine combustion chamber. See also Bi-fuel and Flexible-Fuel Vehicle.

E10: A blend of 10% Ethanol and 90% Petroleum Gas, most gas sold on Long Island is an E10 blend.

E85: A motor fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E85 is an alternative fuel as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy. Vehicles that are classified as FFV or Flexible Fuel Vehicle’s can use either E85 or standard Gas.

EERE: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Electricity: Electricity can be used as a transportation fuel to power battery electric and fuel cell vehicles. When used to power electric vehicles or EVs, electricity is stored in an energy storage device such as a battery.

Energy Efficiency: The inverse of energy intensiveness: the ratio of energy outputs from a process to the energy inputs (for example, miles traveled per gallon of fuel).

EPA: Enviromental Protection Agency

Ethanol: An alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops that have been converted into simple sugars. Feedstocks for this fuel include corn, barley, and wheat.

Flexible-Fuel Vehicle: A vehicle with the ability to operate on alternative fuels (such as M85 or E85), 100 percent traditional fuels, or a mixture of alternative fuel and traditional fuels. See also Bi-fuel and Dual-Fuel Vehicle.

Fuel Cell: An electrochemical engine (no moving parts) that converts the chemical energy of a fuel, such as hydrogen, and an oxidant, such as oxygen, directly to electricity. The principal components of a fuel cell are catalytically activated electrodes for the fuel (anode) and the oxidant (cathode) and an electrolyte to conduct ions between the two electrodes.

GGE: Gas Gallon Equivalent. A unit used to compare fuels based on their respective energy density, as different fuels may be in numerous forms (gas, liquid, solid). For example, 1 gallon of gasoline is 1 GGE. 1 gallon of diesel fuel is approximately 0.88 GGE.

GLICCC: Greater Long Island Clean Cities Coalition

Gross Vehicle Weight Rating: The weight of the empty vehicle plus the maximum anticipated load weight.

Heavy Duty Vehicles: Pursuant to the EPAct, heavy duty vehicles are trucks and buses that have a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 pounds or more.

Hybrid-Electric Vehicle (HEV): A vehicle that is powered by two or more energy sources, one of which is electricity. HEVs may combine the engine and fuel system of a conventional vehicle with the batteries and electric motor of an electric vehicle in a single drive train.

Hydrogen (H2): The lightest of all gases, the element hydrogen occurs chiefly in combination with oxygen in water. It also exists in acids, bases, alcohols, petroleum, and other hydrocarbons.

Light Duty Vehicles: Automobiles and trucks having a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 8,500 pounds.

LNG: Liquid Natural Gas

LPG aka Propane: Liquefied Petroleum Gas

Methanol: Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, can be used as an alternative fuel in flexible fuel vehicles that run on M85 (a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline).

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): Ambient standards for criteria air pollutants specifically regulated under the CAA. These pollutants include ozone, CO, NO2, lead, particulate matter and SOx.

Natural Gas: Natural gas is domestically produced and readily available to end-users through the utility infrastructure. It is also clean burning and produces significantly fewer harmful emissions. In vehicles Natural Gas is used in both compressed and liquid forms.

Non-attainment Area: A region that exceeds minimum acceptable National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for one or more criteria pollutants, in high population density areas, in accordance with the U.S. Census Bureau population statistics. Such regions (areas) are required to seek modifications to their State Implementation Plans, and set forth a reasonable timetable using means (approved by the Environmental Protection Agency) to achieve attainment of NAAQS by a certain date. Under the Clean Air Act, if a non-attainment area fails to attain NAAQS, the Environmental Protection Agency may superimpose a Federal Implementation Plan with stricter requirements or impose fines, construction bans, or cutoffs in Federal grant revenues until the area achieves applicable NAAQS. Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties) is a non-attainment area.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM): Vehicle manufacturers that provide the original design and materials for assembly and manufacture of their product. They are directly responsible for manufacturing and modifying vehicles, making the vehicles commercially available, and providing a warranty for the finished product.

Particulate Matter (PM): A generic term for a broad class of chemically and physically diverse substances that exist as discrete particles (liquid droplets or solids) over a wide range of sizes. Particulate matter is considered a NAAQS pollutant.

Retro-fit: A retro-fitted vehicle was originally a conventional vehicle, designed to operate on gasoline or diesel, but has been altered to run on an alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or propane), or to include hybrid-electric components. Vehicle retro-fits offer AFV options to fleet managers and consumers alike, beyond the supply of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) alternative fuel vehicles.

Smog: A visible haze caused primarily by particulate matter and ozone.

Personal vehicles: Vehicles that are under 6,000 pounds.

Propane: Propane or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a popular alternative fuel choice for vehicles because there is already an infrastructure of pipelines, processing facilities, and storage for its efficient distribution.

P-Series: P-Series fuel is a unique blend of natural gas liquids (pentanes plus), ethanol, and the biomass-derived co-solvent methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF). P-Series fuels are clear, colorless, 89-93 octane, liquid blends that are formulated to be used in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). P-Series are designed to be used alone or freely mixed with gasoline in any proportion inside the FFVs gas tank. These fuels are not currently being produced in large quantities and are not widely used.

Tax Incentives: In general, tax incentives serve as a means of employing the tax code to stimulate investment in or development of a socially desirable economic objective without the direct expenditure from the budget of a given unit of government. Such incentives can take the form of tax exemptions or credits.

Upfit: See Retro-Fit.