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The City of Asheville is hosting the grand opening of the community�s first compressed natural gas station today at 2 p.m. at the station located at 45 McCormick Place (across the street from the Asheville Tourists' McCormick Field). Join the city�s celebration for an opening ceremony, refreshments, filling demonstrations and the chance to see Asheville�s first compressed natural gas vehicles.
About six years ago, the City of Asheville joined with Mission Hospitals, Buncombe County, Progress Energy, PSNC Energy and the WNC Regional Air Quality Agency to promote the use of compressed natural gas for alternative fuel vehicles through the construction of a public, fast-fill CNG station and the purchase of CNG vehicles. In 1999, the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NC DENR) awarded the city a grant through its Mobile Source Emissions Reduction program to fund $400,000 of the station�s construction. With the station�s grand opening on Nov. 30, fuel can be provided to CNG vehicles throughout the Interstate 40 corridor. Citizens can travel from the North Carolina coast to Asheville and further west to Knoxville, Tennessee and on. The Asheville CNG station fills a CNG gap between Hickory and Knoxville. The station is open to the public 24 hours a day. Natural gas is one of the cleanest burning alternative fuels available and offers a number of advantages over gasoline. In light-duty applications, air exhaust emissions from natural gas vehicles are much lower than those from gasoline-powered vehicles. In addition, smog-producing gases, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, are reduced by more than 90 percent and 60 percent, respectively - and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is reduced by 30 to 40 percent. For heavy-duty and medium-duty applications, natural gas engines have demonstrated more than 90 percent reduction of CO and particulate matter and more than 50 percent reduction of NOx relative to commercial diesel engines. The city of Asheville, Mission Hospitals and other community partners invite you to be a part of the grand opening celebration on Nov. 30. (Images provided by the City of Scottsdale.)
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