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New public natural gas station now open

By Jim Becker  bio | email

With the bus yard for Tucson Unified School District right across the street, the fuel station for compressed natural gas vehicles should see plenty of traffic, from 300 CNG school busses.

But anyone can use the station, owned and operated by Clean Energy, a California firm.

Natural gas is cheap right now, with the price at the pump on Winsett the equivalent of $1.99 a gallon.

As more people use natural gas, the air we breathe is cleaner, since CNG engines emit up to 97% less carbon monoxide than gasoline exhaust.

"Some days, when the air pollution is bad here in Tucson, the emissions coming out of the tailpipe are cleaner than the emissions going into the combustion chamber," explains Jim Harger, a marketing executive for Clean Energy.

Harger and others note the EPA has rated the CNG burning Honda Civic as the cleanest internal combustion engine on the planet.

Now, for Tucson drivers who own natural gas vehicles, the trip to the pump won't be as long.