Our Advisory Board requested that we work toward obtaining our own non-profit status with the IRS and become a “stand-alone” coalition.

We are happy to report we have completed that goal and are now exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)3! We received notice of our Exempt Status on September 16, 2011 with an effective date of exemption of April 6, 2011.

This bit of news doesn’t change anything for you or your company when it comes to your contributions to Middle Tennessee Clean Fuels. This is just a milestone that needed to be reached for the growth of our Coalition. Your contributions have always been tax exempt and will continue to be tax exempt.

We are very excited about this designation as a tax exempt organization and wanted to share the great news.

Pat Riley, general manager of the Gibson County Utility District, makes preliminary remarks before introducing Scott Dahlstrom (right) of the Jackson Energy Authority at the Rotary Club Thursday. The two are members of a coalition pushing the use of compressed natural gas as an alternative to gasoline and diesel fuels in vehicles, especially in company and governmental fleet vehicles.

By BILL McCUTCHEON

P-I Staff Writer

Published: Friday, August 19, 2011 11:38 AM CDT

“The United States represents only five percent of the world’s population but consumes twenty-five percent of the world’s oil­ — more than eighty percent of which is imported,” Scott Dahlstrom of the Jackson Energy Authority told members of the Rotary Club Thursday.

“On the other hand,” he said, “some ninety-eight percent of the natural gas we consume is from domestic supply.”

Dahlstrom was introduced by Pat Riley, general manager of the Gibson County Utility District, who briefly talked about the building boom in Dubai — a boom which has resulted in up to 25 percent of all the world’s building cranes being used there. “And, in this country, where temperatures regularly are one hundred and ten degrees or higher,” Riley said, “they have built dozens of luxurious high rise buildings as well as an extravagant mall which includes, of all things, ski slopes complete with chair lifts.”

Riley said his personal goal would be to shut that ski lift down.

“After all, it’s our money that was used to build everything there, yes, money that we paid them for their oil.”

He was just one of several members of a coalition of natural gas districts and companies that were special guests for the meeting, including Tae Eaton, manager of the Paris-Henry County Natural Gas Utility District.

The group is pushing the benefits of using compressed natural gas in commercial and personal vehicles.

“Natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel than traditional fuels,” Dahlstrom said. “CNG is simply natural gas that has been compressed to between thirty-six hundred to five thousand psi so it has the density to perform as a fuel in vehicles.

“There are political, economic and environmental benefits to CNG,” he said. “Politically, it creates American jobs, as more than ninety percent of our natural gas is produced in North America; it also reduces our dependency on foreign oil.” Cost-wise, CNG would help local, state and federal governments better control their spending by lowering fuel costs.

One of the major aims of the push for CNG is for use in fleet vehicles, such as those used by governmental departments.

Economically, the benefits include both a supply infrastructure as well as vehicle technology that already exist.

“Fuel prices are less than half that of gasoline and diesel,” he said, “and the lifecycle costs for natural gas vehicles are lower, too — and, this is very important, CNG does not depend on federal subsidies.”

Dahlstrom also emphasized that natural gas is the cleanest burning of all fossil fuels thus improving public health and the environment.

“Natural gas vehicles produce less hydrocarbon exhaust emissions compared to gasoline-fueled engines,” he said, “and they also emit seventy percent less carbon monoxide, eighty-seven percent less non-methane organic gas, eighty-seven percent less nitrogen oxide and twenty percent less carbon dioxide.”

Another important benefit is its safety.

“CNG is lighter than air so in case of leaks, it will dissipate into the air instead of forming pools in the ground that are dangerous fire hazards or a threat to ground water.”

Two additional benefits he brought out were that heavy duty natural gas vehicles are quieter, operating at 80-90 percent lower decibel levels than comparable diesels — and they reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than 20 percent.

“There are challenges, however,” Dahlstrom said, “including a current lack of convenient fuel station locations along with training a sufficient number of people to maintain the vehicles.”

The program was arranged by Rotarian Harold Bass.

Written by
Andy Humbles

2:38 AM, May. 24, 2011|

Ethanol is a part of the country’s economic and environmental future, the Obama administration believes, and Tennessee is playing a key role in its development.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Nashville on Monday, speaking at a Thorntons gas station in West Nashville on the advantages of ethanol and the federal government’s initiative of installing 10,000 flexible-fuel pumps in the next five years.

Most retail gasoline stations already sell gasoline blends containing 10 percent ethanol. Flexible-fuel pumps would allow a mixture of up to 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, known as E-85.

“Greater supply and accessibility will mean greater acceptance,” Vilsack said at the Thorntons station, which has two of the approximately 20 flexible-fuel pumps
available in Middle Tennessee.

In 2007, the state legislature provided $70 million to the University of Tennessee for research and development of cellulosic ethanol — ethanol made without food grain crops. Most ethanol now is made from corn.

About $40 million has gone to a demonstration-scale bio-refinery in Vonore, Tenn., that opened in 2010.

In 2008, UT began the development of switchgrass as an energy crop in Tennessee.

“We have over 5,000 acres of switchgrass production on 61 different farms,” said Sam Jackson, research assistant professor with the University of Tennessee. “Switchgrass is one of the favored feed stocks because of the high volume that can be created … per acre.”

The bio-refinery in Vonore is the only facility of its scale that converts switchgrass into ethanol, Jackson said. The facility began producing ethanol with cornstalks and is in the process of converting to switchgrass as its primary feedstock, Jackson said.

Gov. Bill Haslam supports the research as well, Haslam spokesman David Smith said.

Woody materials such as sawdust and wood chips and animal waste are among several other ethanol producers being researched. Switchgrass would be a source that grows well in this region, Jackson said.

If Americans embrace a higher-ethanol-content fuel, it can help the country “wean ourselves off a reliance on foreign oil,” Vilsack said Monday.

There are about 2,300 stations in the U.S. where people can get E-85 fuel, according to Atha Comiskey, coordinator of Clean Cities of Middle Tennessee.

Reduces emissions

“It’s cleaner; E-85 reduces carbon monoxide emissions,’’ Comiskey said.

Increased ethanol production and use in the U.S. will increase jobs, Velsack and Comiskey said Monday.

Detractors claim ethanol reduces miles per gallon, but Comiskey believes that’s minimal.

Price and accessibility are what Thornton’s customer Rebecca Cowan, 26, of Nashville believes will determine whether E-85 and other ethanol blends will catch on.

“I’m probably not going to drive somewhere” to find it, she said. “And will I have to buy a new car?”

“I look at the price and if it would burn in my car,” Otis Greene, 55, of Nashville said. The Thorntons station’s two E-85 pumps sold fuel on Monday for $3.29 a gallon, compared with $3.63 for regular-grade unleaded gas with10 percent ethanol.

“I’d like to know more about it,” Greene said.

Since the inception of Clean Cities of Middle Tennessee, we have been under the umbrella of Trust for The Future (TfTF).  Trust for The Future is a corporation that works as a incubator for non-profits that have yet to obtain their 501(c)3 status.  CCMT has been a designated Coalition for the past 9 years and the Advisory Board felt it was time for us to work under our own Board of Directors and with our own non-profit status.

Our new Advisory Board Members are:

• Chair – Doug Fox, Vice President of Nashville Auto Diesel College
• Vice Chair – Gail Bost, Director of Development of the American Lung Association
• Secretary – Mick Henderson, General Manager of Commonwealth Agri-Energy
• Patrick Brennan, Sustainability Manger, Ingram Barge
• Glen Craig, Manager, Hollingsworth Oil
• Eddie Davidson, Sr. Manager of the Tennessee Region, Piedmont Natural Gas
• Alan Jones, Manager Environmental Policy Office, TN Dept. of Transportation
• Todd Mouw, Roush CleanTech
• Rodney Todd, Director of Fleet Operations, City of Jackson
• Rick Warren, Account Manager, TN, AL, KY, FerrellGas
• Tracy Woodard, Director of Government Affairs, Nissan-USA

Doug Fox, Nashville Auto Diesel College

Rick Warren, Ferrellgas

Gail Bost, American Lung Association

Corinne Martin, Sites & Harbison

Gen Craig, Hollingsworth Oil

Rodney Todd, City of Jackson

Alan Jones, TN Dept.of Transportation

Tracy Woodard, Nissan – USA

Mick Henderson, Commonweath Agri-Energy

Nissan Americas chairman Carlos Tavares, had this to say about the Nashville delivery, “Electricity is the new fuel for cars, and the Nissan LEAF has the potential to transform the automotive industry and the way people drive,” said Tavares. “Starting today, drivers in Nashville have the freedom to choose a future that produces zero tailpipe emissions, moves away from our dependence on fossil fuels, and represents the end of trips to the gas station. This Nissan LEAF delivery signifies the dawn of a movement that brings sustainable mobility to within our grasp.”

In July 2008, Nissan announced that it was entering into a partnership with the State of Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This partnership was established in an effort to champion the development of electric vehicle-friendly policies and EV charging infrastructure. This collaboration was the first of its kind in the U.S. and has served as a model for other markets across the country.

While Nissan has been putting electric vehicles on the road, the TVA has been doing its part to establish the infrastructure and technology to fuel the vehicles. “Early in 2011, TVA will unveil the first of its many planned solar-assisted charging stations in the state. We are moving forward with research, planning and electric systems that will help power the future of transportation,” said Anda Ray, TVA’s senior vice president of Environment and Technology.

Tennessee is one of the original members of Governor Bredesen’s Zero Emission Mobility Project with Renault-Nissan. According to Decosta Jenkins, the President and CEO of Nashville Electric Service, the state realizes the marketability electric transportation will bring to Tennessee and their role as the new fuel provider. “We’ve made a commitment to our rate payers to continue providing the most reliable electric service at the lowest possible cost. We look forward to working with our residential and commercial customers as they transition to electric transportation,” said Jenkins.

Nashville and Tennessee comprise a primary launch market for the Nissan LEAF, as well as a participant in The EV Project.

“Thanks to Nissan’s industry leadership, Middle Tennessee stands poised to benefit environmentally and economically as electric vehicles take root in the marketplace,” Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said. “In addition, the selection of our region to participate in the EV Project places us firmly on the cutting edge of the renewable energy movement. We are part of a very select group, and soon will be one of only a few communities in the United States to have a critical mass of publicly-accessible EV charging infrastructure.”

The Nashville delivery marks the conclusion of more than a week of festivities, as Nissan delivered the first LEAF vehicles to each of its primary launch markets in Northern and Southern California, Arizona, Oregon, Seattle and Tennessee.