Picture L-R Cliff Mason and Ken Lawton
 
This day, the club heard a fascinating presentation from Cliff Mason, a Senior Manager at National Fuel, and a member of the Clean Communities of WNY. Cliff lives in East Aurora, and was thrilled to be able to speak in front of such a robust Rotary Club in Jamestown. He also drove to Jamestown in a natural gas powered vehicle. Cliff was introduced by Ken Lawton, who himself works at National Fuel in Jamestown.
 
Cliff's main focus of his presentation was on Clean Transportation Alternatives, particularly vehicles that run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). 
 
Some of the advantages of Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV)'s are that they are better for the environment and run on a fuel that has a more stable price than regular gasoline (which heavily relies on foreign oil). Cliff also pointed out that the United States has a bounty of natural gas resources to tap into as well.
 
While mileage for NGV's are about the same as gas and not nearly as good as diesel, Cliff made it clear that NGV's still have many advantages over traditionally powered vehicles.
 
There are 3 types of Natural Gas Vehicles:
 
Dedicated: only runs on natural gas. About 40 service vans for National Fuel in Buffalo run this way
Bi-Fuel: vehicle can run on natural gas or traditional gasoline (Cliff actually drove a vehicle from Buffalo to Jamestown powered this way)
Duel Fuel: runs on diesel & natural gas, and is mainly found in tractor trailers
 
Cliff concluded by saying there are incentives available for CNG vehicles and projects as well.
 
One question from the audience was on the safety of vehicles that run on CNG. Cliff assured everyone that NGV's have a good safety record. 
 
Cliff is also a member of the Clean Communities of WNY, and information about that group and their efforts to help make alternative fuels more available in Western New York can be found here.