Natural Communities Magazine A magazine devoted to the local natural wellness culture.

The fuel source for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles may be in your home already.

Yes, the same natural gas that heats the majority of homes in our area can be redirected through a “Phill” unit to fuel CNG vehicles. The units are small and efficient. They tap into existing natural gas lines and can be mounted to the wall of a garage.

The benefits for consumers driving CNG vehicles are numerous, including the savings per gallon of gasoline equivalent, the benefits to the environment, the convenience of refueling in your own home, and the tax credits currently in place.

The average cost per gallon of product is about 95 cents less than conventional gasoline. Product is delivered in a gaseous state. At $2.30 a gallon that makes CNG more than 40% more attractive than conventional gasoline.

The environmental benefits over conventional gasoline vehicles are staggering. CNG fuel contains less carbons than any other fossil fuel. That makes it the most friendly to the environment and significantly reduces emissions:

? Carbon Monoxide reduced by 70%
? Non-Methane Organic Gas reduced by 87%
? Nitrogen Oxides reduced by 87%
? Carbon Dioxide reduced by 20%

The federal government has recognized the environmental impact and allows a $4,000 tax credit for the purchase of a 2007 Honda Civic CNG, the highest vehicle credit available. The Civic CNG gets 28 miles per gallon in the city and 39 miles per gallon on the highway.

Not a Household Word Here Yet

CNG vehicles are not that well known in our area, but they are used abundantly throughout the world, with more than 5.5 million CNG vehicles on the road. We have about 130,000 CNG vehicles on the road in the US, with a large number on the west coast, and about 850 CNG stations. Some larger cities, like Los Angeles, let CNG vehicles park for free.

CNG vehicles came about because of the 1970s’ fuel crisis. Many countries are using a large number of CNG vehicles, including use as mass transit vehicles. The U.S. is currently in 7th place in the number of CNG vehicles. Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Italy and Iran currently have more CNG vehicles in operation. Argentina, Brazil and Pakistan each have over a million.

Not for Everyone

CNG vehicles aren’t perfect for every driver. If you’re someone who drives hundreds of miles in a day, you may want to consider other options. CNG tanks hold just over 8 gallons of product, and Phill/CNG stations aren’t widely spread yet.

In addition to the Phill station we recently installed at Honda Motorwerks, CNG vehicles are filled in the Twin Cities and Cadott, Wisconsin. The CNG station in Cadott has been operating for about 20 years filling school buses.

Our goal in putting one in our business is to help show people what’s possible if they want to help themselves and the environment by putting a Phill station in their own home. In addition to the $4,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Civic CNG, the government is allowing a $1,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Phill station. Those credits should cover the purchase and installation of a Phill station.

What’s Next?

People concerned with the environment are always looking for a better way. We’ve been dedicated to spreading the word about hybrids since 1999, but CNG vehicles are another attractive alternative that help the environment and help to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. I predict that they will start catching on here, just as they have in other areas of the world.

Chris Schneider, Hybrid Guru, is President of Honda Motorwerks. He can be reached at chris-hybridguru@centurytel.net

The April 22 Earth Day

Responding to wide-spread environmental degradation, United States Senator Gaylord Nelson called for an Environmental Teach-in or Earth Day to be held on April 22, 1970. Over 20 million people participated and it is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries. Senator Gaylord Nelson, an environmental activist in the U.S. Senate, took a leading role in organizing the celebration to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda. He modeled it on the highly effective Vietnam War protests of the time. Senator Nelson selected Dennis Hayes (a Harvard student and Stanford graduate) as the National Coordinator of Activities. The nationwide event included opposition to the Vietnam War on the agenda. Pete Seeger was a keynote speaker and performer at the event held in Washington DC. Paul Newman and Ali McGraw attended the event held in New York City. According to Santa Barbara Community Environmental Council:

“The story goes that Earth Day was conceived by Senator Gaylord Nelson after a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after that horrific oil spill off our coast in 1969. He was so outraged by what he saw that he went back to Washington and passed a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth.”

Senator Nelson stated that Earth Day “worked” because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. Twenty million demonstrators and thousands of schools and local communities participated.

The “holiday” proved extremely popular in the United States and around the world. The first Earth Day, in 1970, had participants and celebrants in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it “brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.”

Senator Nelson directly credited the first Earth Day with persuading U.S. politicians that environmental legislation had a substantial, lasting constituency. Many important laws were passed by the Congress in the wake of the 1970 Earth Day, including the Clean Air Act, laws to protect drinking water, wild lands and the ocean.

Now observed in 175 countries, and coordinated by the not-for-profit Earth Day Network, www.earthday.org, Earth Day is the largest secular holiday in the world.

The Equinoctial Earth Day

The equinoctial Earth Day is celebrated on the vernal equinox to mark the precise moment spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. On equinox, night and day are equal length anywhere on Earth. Therefore, a perfectly vertical pole standing on the equator at noon during equinox will not cast a shadow. At the South Pole, the sun sets and ends a six-month-long day while at the North Pole, the sun rises, and hence, ending six months of continuous darkness.

The United Nations celebrates Earth Day each year on the vernal equinox (around March 21). On February 26, 1971, UN Secretary-General U Thant signed a proclamation to that effect. At the moment of the equinox, it is traditional to observe the day by ringing the Japanese Peace Bell, a bell donated by Japan to the United Nations. The United Nations also works with organizers of the April 22nd global event.

John McConnell first introduced the idea of a global holiday called Earth Day at a UNESCO Conference on the Environment in 1969, the same year that he designed the Earth flag. The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor, Joseph Alioto, on March 21, 1970. U Thant supported John McConnell’s global initiative to celebrate this annual spring equinox event. Secretary General Waldheim observed Earth Day with similar ceremonies in 1972. The United Nations’ Earth Day ceremony continued each year on the day of the March equinox (20th or 21st), with the ringing of the U.N. Peace Bell at the very moment of the equinox.

Source: wikipedia