New CNG station helps fuel vehicles, as well as the local economy

Tulsa now boasts the largest compressed natural gas fueling depot in Oklahoma, and one of the largest in the country.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and Environment Michael Teague, Jason Kannady of NeWSolutions, Inc. and Tom Sewell of Blue Energy Fuels and Tulsa Gas Technologies joined other dignitaries and business people in a ribbon-cutting ceremony held Monday morning at the new facility, located at 4241 S. Galveston Ave. in west Tulsa.

Sewell told KRMG the roots of the day's accomplishment go back more than twenty years.

He has spearheaded the drive to make CNG a technologically feasible and economic source of energy.

Mayor Bartlett helped convince the Tulsa Authority for the Reclamation of Energy, commonly known as TARE or the trash board, to make CNG-fueled trucks part of the requirements for the city's new waste management contract.

Northeast Waste Solutions, which won the contract, now has roughly 60 such trucks, which Bartlett said saves about a half-million dollars a year in fuel costs.

Sewell points out that the technology benefits Oklahoma economically every step of the way.

"This production has income for the state of Oklahoma all the way from the well to the burner tip," he said.

That includes the trucks themselves, the drilling equipment, the pipelines, the compressors, and the fueling equipment, almost all of which is built and sold in the Tulsa area.

Teague, who assumed his post in Gov. Mary Fallin's cabinet about a month ago, says CNG technology will have a massive impact on the state's economic future.

Oklahoma now has more CNG fueling stations per capita than any other state.

Only Houston has more gas and petroleum-related workers than Tulsa.

CNG fuel currently costs about $1.40 per gallon at the pump.