The Greater Long Island Clean Cities Coalition

The Greater Long Island Clean Cities Coalition (GLICCC) hosted an alternative fuel vehicle conference entitled “Alternative Fuels Today–For a Greener Tomorrow. It was held at Carlyle on the Green. Keynote speaker was Peter Scully, Long Island regional director, NYS DEC (Dept of Environmental Conservation).

The purpose of the Coalition conference was to alert consumers and fleet operators to the many choices of American produced clean fuels that are available to them such as: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), E-85 ethanol made from corn alcohol), propane, all electric, electric hybrid technology and biodiesel (made from soy oil and recycled restaurant grease).

The five main technology areas that the Clean Cities program focuses on are: alternative fuels & vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrid electric vehicles and idle reduction. Over the past 15 years the Coalition has awarded $15 million dollars in American Recovery Reinvestment Act and over $10 million dollars in congestion mitigation and air quality funding and to its stakeholders including municipalities and private fleet operators that have taken on and completed alternative clean fuel vehicle projects. Through these projects last year alone, it displaced 11.5 million gallons of petroleum.

President Obama toured one of the Clean Cities ARRA awards project sites in Las Vegas today (SCAQMD’s LNG corridor with UPS) and also referenced our program’s National Clean Fuel Partnership. You can either watch the video link below or read the remarks if your video link loads slowly:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/26/remarks-president-american-made-energy

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Pres-Obama-Promotes-Job-Plan-in-Las-Vegas-amp-Denver-Stops/10737427632/

There was reference to the establishment of 5 Clean Corridors and a CNG vehicle design competition. There are not many details beyond that, but i’m sure we’ll hear more in the coming weeks. Also, below is a link with more info from the State of the Union on Energy Policy:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/26/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-blueprint-make-most-america-s-energy-resour

Once again Clean Cities and our industry partners are on the front lines of the national agenda. This year will be very busy with VIPs wanting to visit project sites across the country; they definitely seem to be interested in CNG and LNG. While they will probably concentrate on swing states, the potential exist for visits in our region too, so we ought to be ready.