Filling station fuels S.C.'s future

It's also National Carry a Tune Week. Suggestions are Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band," which turns 100 years old, and Henry Mancini's "Moon River," which turns 50.

None of the three weeks offers prizes, the chance to save money or run a more efficient household - but Public Natural Gas Week does!

The York County Natural Gas Authority is celebrating Public Natural Gas Week with a raffle for customers to win a new stainless steel gas grill, and daily drawings for a $50 credit on their natural gas bills.

Today through Wednesday, the authority is holding an open house at its new customer service and appliance center on West Main Street in Rock Hill. Hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. There will be talks on saving money on your utility bill, selected products are for sale at 30 and 35 percent off retail prices, and tankless water heaters will be demonstrated.

The authority is awaiting news from the U.S. Green Building Council to see if its new customer service center meets standards for its LEED award, which recognizes projects that are environmentally friendly.

Among the practices used in construction:

40 percent of building products were made from recycled material,

30 percent were made within 500 miles of Rock Hill, and

80 percent of construction waste was recycled.

A white membrane roof reflects heat, and the facility has water-efficient plumbing systems, drought-tolerant landscaping and natural lighting throughout the two-story building.

J.M. Cope of Rock Hill was the general contractor, and many of the subcontractors and workers were local, said Tim Baldwin, the authority's vice president of marketing services. The authority, Baldwin said, made a conscious decision to hire locally for this project.

The building is one example of the authority's commitment to the environment. From the customer service center's back patio, where the authority has gas grills and a gas fireplace on display, is another sign - a compressed natural gas filling station.

The station is one of five in South Carolina. It is the second in the state open to all vehicles running on compressed natural gas. It will likely be the first open 24 hours a day.

It is a big step for the authority. Compressed natural gas facilities are usually operated by municipalities to fuel their fleet vehicles such as buses or garbage trucks and are not open to the public.

The York County Natural Gas Authority and Piedmont Natural Gas are counting on fleet vehicles initially to make their compressed natural gas stations profitable. Piedmont has four consumer natural gas stations operating in Greenville, Charlotte, Greensboro, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn. The company has plans to expand, hoping to add 12 stations in 2012.

They are waiting for the day when compressed natural gas powers everyday personal autos. They are optimistic that day is near for a number of reasons.

Foremost, natural gas is almost exclusively a domestic product.

It is a clean burning fuel that drastically cuts the emissions that place the Charlotte region - Rock Hill included - in "nonattainment" status for air pollution.

Vehicles on compressed natural gas produce 90 percent less carbon monoxide that those powered with gasoline, 60 percent less nitrogen oxides and 30 percent less carbon dioxides, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Currently, only Honda makes a sedan powered by compressed natural gas, the Honda NGV. It has a base price of about $26,000 and gets 24 miles per gallon in the city and 36 mpg on the highway. Other cars can be converted to run on compressed natural gas at a cost of between $4,000 and $5,000.

The savings from compressed natural gas can be significant. The York County Natural Gas Authority anticipates a price of $1.52 per gallon. When compared with gasoline at $3.09 a gallon, a person driving 15,000 miles a year would save $735 a year using compressed natural gas. The drawback the a lack of stations. The estimated range of the Honda is between 200 and 250 miles.

The station is just one example of trying to be more environmentally friendly locally.

The city has electric charging stations at Manchester Meadows, Cherry Park, the airport, the downtown parking deck and the new Operations Center on Anderson Road. The York Electric Cooperative recently installed a charging station at its York office, 1385 E. Alexander Love Highway.

Clearly, some believe the technologies for cleaner, more efficient cars - not dependent on gasoline - are here, now.

"It was a conscious decision," Baldwin said of installing the station and its $500,000 in equipment. "Someone has to lead. Hopefully, this will be a model station and bring attention to South Carolina, bring notice to Rock Hill."