America sits on one of the world’s largest deposits of natural gas, more than enough to make the U.S. independent from the foreign oil imports the electric vehicles failed to avert. While the price of oil goes up, natural gas is now cheaper than 30 years ago. Greenhouse gas emissions from engines powered by natural gas trucks are about 20 percent lower than those powered by gasoline or diesel. One would not notice this at normal “gas” station. Cars and trucks still mostly fuel up the old-fashioned way. A change to natural gas is now brought by UPS.
UPS will buy about 700 LNG vehicles, supplied by four refueling stations by the end of 2014, Reuters says. UPS said that with natural gas prices 30-40 percent lower than imported diesel, the investment will see a quick payback. UPS already has more than 1,000 natural gas vehicles on the road across the world and will have one of the biggest LNG truck fleets in the world one the project is completed.