2. New Jersey is one of the most polluted states in the country.

Global warming is real and threatens the earth. Using gasoline powered vehicles is one of the primary sources of pollution to our environment.

Table 1: New Jersey 2001 Primary Pollutants (tons/year)

Nonattainment area is a locality where air pollution levels persistently exceed National Ambient Air Quality Standards, or that contributes to ambient air quality in a nearby area that fails to meet standards. Designating an area as nonattainment is a formal rulemaking process, and EPA normally takes this action only after air quality standards have been exceeded for several consecutive years. Nonattainment areas are given a classification based on the severity of the violation and the type of air quality standard they exceed.

EPA designations of nonattainment areas are only based on violations of national air quality standards for carbon monoxide, lead, ozone (1-hour), particulate matter (PM-10), and sulfur dioxide.

Table 2: New Jersey Non Attainment Areas and Pollutants

This may not be a surprise to many as they drive down the NJ Turnpike in North Jersey, but our air quality leaves something to be desired. Even in other parts of the state where we have green trees and farms we may have a false sense of security, but almost all of NJ has been designated a non-attainment area due to a moderate to severe accumulation of pollutants. As you can see in Table 1 above - the vast majority of these are generated from highway vehicles.

Natural gas as a transportation fuel is not perfect. It is a fossil fuel and it does cause pollution. However the point is that it causes dramatically less pollution than burning gasoline. For example the Civic GX CNG is rated the cleanest production vehicle in the world by the EPA. It is 90% cleaner than the average gasoline powered vehicle. We would love to be promoting electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, however they are still far away from being ready for the big time. There are huge technical hurdles that people much smarter than us are working on, and our hope is that some day that is how we will be powering our vehicles. Hydrogen and electric cars are still the future, however natural gas vehicles are ready for today.

There are significant voices out there who see natural gas vehicles as an unhealthy compromise on the environment. They argue that it takes our eye off the prize, and is simply trading a bigger sin in for a slightly lesser one. We understand their frustration. What we hope to show them is that this is not a love affair with CNG. It is simply a means to an end. We need to do something right now and CNG is the only viable option to gasoline right now. If you have the technical skills to make better batteries, please continue the good work. Do not pay attention to what we are trying to do with CNG, we do not want to distract your good efforts. However for the 99.99% of the rest of us who want to do something rather than wait another 10 or 20 years, lets start pushing the current best and only alternative to gasoline, CNG....and for the Hydrogen contingent, if you have done any research you already know that the best thing possible for Hydrogen technology is a flourishing CNG transport industry. Virtually every technology related to CNG has a direct application to a future Hydrogen fueled world. Both natural gas and Hydrogen are gases at room temperature and need to be stored, compressed and transported in the same way. Almost every technology breakthrough for CNG would be a breakthrough for Hydrogen as well. That is why CNG is also referred to as a "bridge" technology. It is a potential "bridge" to a hydrogen future.

3. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has been used in vehicles for over 70 years. It is a primary transport fuel in many foreign countries, however NJ residents have no access to it. There are ZERO public access CNG filling stations and ZERO CNG vehicle purchasing or conversion options.


This is somewhat of a chicken and egg dilemma whereby nobody is going to build fueling stations if there are no cars and nobody is going to build the cars unless there is a way to fuel them. One cannot exist without the other and nobody so far has taken the initiative to provide both at the same time. We are going to try our best to change that.

As everyone has recently experienced, gasoline prices have taken extreme swings. The shock of $4 gas is still fresh for most everyone, however the recent reductions have come as a welcome surprise in difficult economic times. The important point is that no matter where gasoline prices are natural gas is almost always cheaper. Natural gas is almost always roughly 30% -50% cheaper than a gallon equivalent of gasoline at any time. At $4 per gallon you can expect to fill up on CNG from anywhere from $2-$3 per gallon equivalent. At $2 gasoline CNG could be as low as $1 per gallon equivalent!

It's domestically produced, it keeps money in America and away from those that threaten us, it's cleaner and it's cheaper. If you are a patriot it makes sense, if you are green it makes sense, even if you just want to save some money at the pump it makes sense. The only reason not do it is indifference. Come on NJ, we think once you understand all the facts, it becomes pretty clear that there is no reason to wait any longer. CNG is available now, and we should do what we can to bring it to New Jersey!

To get an idea of exactly how bad the problem is in NJ check out this link to the Department of Energy's Alernative Fueling Station Locator. Select Compressed Natural Gas as the type of fuel and then put in any address in NJ. If you look for all stations you will see a handful of stations from PSEG, NJDOT and the Port Authority. However if you dig a little deeper you will see that ALL of these are private and not open to the public. Once you do an advanced search and filter for only public stations you will see our current sad state of affairs...a big conspicuous blank area over all of NJ.