Clean Fuel News

LCF in the News: Energizing Louisiana’s economy with clean fuels for a healthy future

Originally posted by Samantha Morgan | January 20, 2021 | WAFB | Original Article

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Energy is life. The way we capture, store, and produce energy for our modern world is an expanding landscape that is as much dependent on new technology as it is a new way of thinking.

“Louisiana is an oil and gas state, and we’re very proud of that, but we are also starting to become a leader in the alternative fuel market,” said Randy Hayden, President of Louisiana Clean Fuels.

The traditional fuel sources that set our world in motion and energizes our local economy is also contributing to global climate change.

“In the coming decades, Louisiana will become warmer, and both floods and droughts may become more severe,” states the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “Unlike most of the nation, Louisiana did not become warmer during the last century. But soils have become drier, annual rainfall has increased, more rain arrives in heavy downpours, and sea level is rising.”

CO2 is the driving force behind climate change because it accounts for 81 percent of greenhouse gas, which traps heat in the atmosphere.

“When I first started at Louisiana Clean Fuels in 2012, our organization was only reporting a few thousand gallons of alternative fuel usage a year. We are now offsetting over 9 million gallons of petroleum with fuels like natural gas, propane and electricity, and through advanced technologies and practices like idle-reduction, fuel efficient vehicles,” said Ann Vail, Executive Director of Louisiana Clean Fuels.

In the private sector, electric cars are becoming more practical options for consumers. But five years ago, the sell was a little tougher due to the lack of charging access. To make it more attractive, Baton Rouge added electric car charging stations in various locations across the city.

“Anyone with an electric vehicle can come in, they can park their car there, plug it in, they don’t have to do anything else,” said Scott Barrios, Senior Account Manager at Entergy. “Plug in and walk away and their car’s being charged for free on behalf of Entergy and the city of Baton Rouge.”

Bridging the gap between the public and the private sector is a large part of what Vail and her team does at Louisiana Clean Fuels.

“We’re not an industry group, we’re here to help,” she said. “We want to give our stakeholders the best information possible so they can make informed decisions and have the best experience possible.”

Fleet vehicles such as school buses, garbage trucks, and public transportation are the everyday workhorses that can toe the line of progress.

“If someone has a bad experience with an alternative fuel vehicle, that’s going to leave a bad taste in their mouth for decades. We’re trying to avoid those situations by giving them the best information possible,” Vail said.

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