Proposed Action Item
Alachua County Energy Commission
Action
1. Adopt policy to encourage owners of gasoline or diesel powered light and
medium duty vehicles to convert those vehicles to operate on alternative fuels,
such as ethanol blends, biodiesel blends, compressed natural gas, liquid natural
gas and / or propane, and fuel providers to investment in distribution
infrastructure.
2. Publish life-cycle emissions of greenhouse gases in standard units, such as
kgCO2e/MJ, to help consumers understand that both vehicle efficiency AND fuel
selection has a significant impact on their carbon footprint.
Background
The rapid increase in the price of oil-derived gasoline and diesel fuels has imposed
considerable hardship on the citizens of Alachua County. Since 1994 real prices of
gasoline and diesel fuels have increased more than 300%.
Except for E10 blends and small quantities of biodiesel and propane used by a very small
group of individuals Alachua County consumers do not have the ability to purchase and
use significant quantities of any alternative fuel. Consumers do NOT have the ability to
choose cheaper, safer, cleaner and / or more efficient vehicle and motor fuel options that
are now commonly available in many other parts of the world.
Ethanol-Gasoline Blends and Biodiesel Blends
An ethanol-gasoline blend (E10) is now available are available at many local service
stations in response to recent action by the Florida legislature. Small quantities of
biodiesel blends ranging from B5 to B100 are being imported for use in a few diesel
vehicles.
These liquid fuel blends of ethanol and gasoline are now becoming available because
modern gasoline engines are designed and built to combust the E10 blend and federal
policy and subsidies have made ethanol slightly less expensive than gasoline. The use of
higher concentrations of ethanol, up to E85, however, requires specially designed FlexFuel vehicles and fuel dispensers. E85 blends are not currently available in Alachua
County.
Gaseous Fuels
Natural gas is the cleanest motor fuel available for widespread use today. In Utah and
Oklahoma CNG prices are less than $1/gge. If available CNG prices in North Florida
would be higher than western states, but still significantly lower than petroleum fuels.
Prices of CNG in Atlanta are about $2.01/gge and $2.80/gge in Miami. See
http://www.cngprices.com/ for prices in various regions of the United States.
Since April 1994 the price of natural gas fuels has only increased by about 200% and at
no time was the cost of natural gas fuels higher than the cost of gasoline or diesel fuels
when adjusted to gasoline gallon equivalent (gge) of diesel gallon equivalent (dge). This
energy adjusted price differential between natural gas fuels and gasoline and diesel fuel
has been more than $1.39/gge for commercial customers over the past four years. Over
the past year the differential has soared to more than $2.37/gge. Given current strong
global demand for petroleum it is likely that this wide price differential will continue for
the indefinite future.
Renewable energy initiatives, such as the Pickens Plan or the Gore Solar Grand Plan, are
designed to increase the supply of wind, solar and biomass electricity and thus displace
the use of natural gas for electric power generation. If these initiatives are successful
demand for natural gas may not increase as rapidly as predicted thus keeping natural gas
prices much lower than petroleum fuels. These trends create a very powerful price
incentive for conversion of gasoline and diesel vehicles to natural gas fuels.
Unfortunately conversion to natural gas fuels requires more planning and coordination
between fuel providers and customers that the use of ethanol and biodiesel fuels. Vehicles
designed for operation solely on gasoline and diesel fuels cannot use compressed natural
gas or propane fuels without significant modifications to vehicle fuel systems.
Concurrently fuel providers must make significant investment in fuel distribution
infrastructure. Because both the fuel supplier and customers have to work together
natural gas and propane fuels are not available at this time to Alachua County consumers.
However, the much lower cost of natural gas combined with federal and state financial
incentives both for vehicle owners and fuel providers can make conversion to CNG very
attractive to fleet operators and many individuals. In addition, greenhouse gas emission
from natural gas vehicles are about 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline
powered vehicles.