Capital District
Clean Communities
Capital District Clean Communities
Meeting Notes
Attendance
David Ardman, Barton & Loguidice
Pat Boudreau, National Grid
Theresa Cassiack, Malkin and Ross
Jen Ceponis, CDTC Staff
David Ericsen, Premiere Limo
Jeremiah Haley, Honda Corp
Steve Iachetta,
Bob Kelly, Air Products
Steven Levy, Sprague Energy (by telephone)
Pete Rea, NYSDOT R-1
Adam Rudar, NYSERDA
Deborah Stacey, CDTC Staff, CDCC Coordinator
Jane Wimmer, John Ray and Sons
SUMMARY NOTES: Bob Kelly
from Air Products provided a presentation on the Hydrogen fuel products and fueling
infrastructure:
Air
Products is a leader in hydrogen fuel infrastructure. Air Products has established over 80 stations
and 100 dispensers. Bob reviewed some of
the hydrogen products. One product,
HCNG, is a blend of hydrogen and CNG. This
product can greatly reduce NOx and HC emissions, which reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by up to 300%. HCNG, at low
blends, can be run by any CNG engine. A
20% blend can be utilized by CNG engines that have been modified to burn the
fuel. Specially designed engines can use
a 30% blend.
The
biggest danger with the hydrogen fuel is that when burning the flame is invisible. However, hydrogen is very light and goes
straight up into the atmosphere when released into the air. Hydrogen also burns very quickly.
Bob had
many other facts and figures on the hydrogen economy that he is willing to
share with the group. Bob distributed
his business card and encouraged coalition members to contact him if they want
additional information.
1. NYSERDA
a. NYSERDA has several Project Opportunity Notices
(PONS) available that might be of interest to the CDCC. The first is a Bio-fuel Retail Station
program that pays 50% of the cost of installing the hardware needed to sell
bio-fuel at the pump. This PON is still
open. About 90 applications have been
received statewide. Several new ethanol
stations are now open in the Capital District.
A complete list can be found at http://www.e85refueling.com/locations.php?resultpage=2&state=nyNew%20York
. The school bus retrofit program PON just closed. This program pays for 100% of the cost to
retrofit diesel buses with Diesel Oxidation Catalysts and Particulate Filters. NYSERDA is moving forward with the
hybrid-electric school bus demonstration program. Brown Coach will put two HEV’s in service on
their Schenectady School Bus runs. One
HEV will be a plug-in hybrid. Identical
traditional diesel buses will be used on the same routes. Data will be collected on fuel usage, repair
schedules, reliability over the next year.
The same two HEV buses will go through similar testing with two other
school districts—one downstate and one in the Western part of the state.
2. CDTC:
a. A second solicitation for the CMAQ diesel
retrofit program will likely be circulated in early 2009, budgets
permitting. CDTC would like additional
municipalities to put forward diesel retrofit projects.
b. CDTC staff has been pursing
Transportation Demand Management activities with the help of CDTA. The conversion of the Commuter Register to
“ipool2” is complete. A few tweaks are
being worked on, but the site is up and running and becoming quite
popular. In 2007, 60 carpool ads were
processed by the Commuter Register.
Since the beginning of December, over 300 carpool ads have been
processed by iPool2. CDTA developed a
press release for the website. Several
newspapers and TV stations picked up on the press release. CDTC is working with several employers,
including
3. OTHER NEWS:
a.
b. National Grid: Pat Boudreau distributed literature on heating
rebates for both home owners and businesses.
The rebates are good for the installation of high efficiency gas
furnaces and water heaters. $25.00
rebates for
Next Meeting
This group will meet again on