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Valley Sky-Lines eNewsletter - May 2010
May 2010 - In this Edition
- Cox Communications and Alternative Fuels
- The College of Southern Nevada and Alternative Fuels
- 3rd Annual Solar Car Challenge & Alternative Fuel Demonstration
- The Las Vegas Regional Clean Cities Coalition 2010 Annual Meeting
- What Is the Process for Registering Fuels with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Which Conventional Fuels and Fuel Additives Are Currently Registered?
- Upcoming LVRCCC Meetings
- Industry Events Calendar
Cox Communications and Alternative Fuels
By Terri Hacker
Cox Communications’ introduction to alternative fueled vehicles in Las Vegas began in 2003. Our Corporate Fleet Team in Atlanta purchased and sent out six CNG Ford E250 cargo vans to our Las Vegas system. We were thrilled to have the chance to try an alternative fuel vehicle. Little did I know that I would encounter difficulties finding fueling stations open to the public and drivers who were willing to keep records on the performance of the units. In desperation, I searched the internet and found the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute (AFVi) website. For the next few years, I received their newsletter, the AFVConnection, and participated in various webinars. It was through an invitation from AFVi to attend a local LVRCCC stakeholders meeting that Cox got involved with the LVRCCC.The timing couldn’t have been better. Cox Corporate Fleet was actively looking at alternative fuels and vehicles, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The meeting was filled with local Las Vegas government entities who were dedicated to reducing petroleum consumption. I was definitely in the right place.
Here’s a little bit about Cox and our “green” mission. Cox Enterprises, the parent company, is a leading communications, media and automotive services company with revenues of $15 billion and more than 66,000 employees. Our major operating subsidiaries include:
- Cox Communications: cable TV, digital telephone, high speed internet and commercial telecommunications – Cox Business
- Manheim Inc.: vehicle auctions, repairs, and certification services
- Cox Media Group: TV stations, digital media, newspapers, and advertising
- Auto Trader: online automotive classified
- Kudzu.com: Cox internet operations site
Cox prides itself on being a good corporate citizen and an environmental leader. Business and citizens must work together to do a better job of caring for the environment. Cox’s motto is: Acting now...for tomorrow. With that being said, Cox initiated their COX Conserves program. Our website is www.coxconserves.com. We’re looking at everything we do from an environmental perspective. It’s good business and it’s the right thing to do, now and in the years to come.
Our program goals are:
- To reduce our annual company-wide carbon footprint or gas house emissions, by 20% by 2017.
- We expect to save 172,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, equivalent to the pollution of powering 26,000 homes.
Each Cox System Location aims to:
- Inspire eco-friendly actions in our communities
- Harness renewable forms of energy
- Conserve natural resources
Our Green History: Since 2000, Cox’s Energy Management and Fleet Departments have implemented energy saving measures at many of our company sites. These efforts include efficient heating and cooling systems, green energy sources, hybrid and E85 fleet vehicles and more. The result? Cox has already eliminated the production of 118,000 tons of greenhouse gases. There’s so much more to do. Our current carbon footprint is more than 832,000 tons of greenhouse gases, so our 20% reduction goal translates into a reduction of an additional 166,000 tons.
The College of Southern Nevada and Alternative Fuels
By Paul Pate
In the late 1990's, several faculty at the College of Southern Nevada began to take an interest in the growing alternative fuels movement. We quickly realized that in order to best serve our students, we needed to include instruction in the operation and repair of the various alternative fueled vehicles in our curriculum to create well-rounded students.
Our first jump into this technology was in the form of a donation of a natural gas powered van from Southwest Gas Corporation. Soon after we received a donation from a local cab company of a propane powered taxi. Shortly after that, we were able to influence the college to purchase several natural gas vehicles, which went into fleet service. Some of those vehicles still exist today. We then added a natural gas fueling site on the Cheyenne campus and began introducing students to NGVs and fueling procedures.
From there, CSN became part of the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC), a consortium of colleges that are committed to teaching these advanced vehicle technologies, as well as promoting the use of American fuels, the reduction of our dependence on foreign sources of oil and the protection of our environment.
Being a National Training Center with the NAFTC has allowed our instructors to participate in advanced-level training. Multiple instructors have attended courses about NGVs, biodiesel, hybrid service, first responder techniques and much more.Most importantly, however, are the recent changes that have been made to the curriculum at CSN. We are taking a multi-level approach that adds specific techniques into the curriculum we teach daily, as well as adding additional courses that deal specifically with alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles. We feel that this approach will arm the largest number of students with knowledge about these vehicles. As for the new courses that were added for the spring 2010 semester, I am happy to report that both of the courses completely filled, and some students had to be turned away. The first course, "Intro to Alternative Fuels," covers NGVs, LPG, E-85 and other biofuels, hybrids and hydrogen fuels cells, as well as hydrogen ICE. One of the fun activities in the class is to make a small batch of biodiesel and construct a scale model of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that runs on water and sunlight. Students are given information regarding the impact of petroleum in our society, methods of petroleum reduction and the impact of transportation on the environment. Feedback from the students involved is very positive.
The second new class this semester is Hybrid Vehicle Service Techniques. In this class students are practicing the service techniques specific to Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), as well as diagnostic techniques for hybrid vehicle malfunctions. CSN has been very aggressive over the past four years in obtaining, primarily through federal grant funding, hybrid vehicles to utilize for training our students. We currently have six hybrid vehicles and a significant portion of the test equipment required to work on them. Student feedback on this class has been very positive.
So what does the future hold for advanced technology vehicle training at CSN? We embrace and are excited to learn about and present this technology to students. We are also fully supportive of the goals of reducing our dependence on foreign sources of petroleum and protecting our environment. That said, our plan for the future is to continue to aggressively train our own staff and to present this material to our students, as well as to develop new courses or modify our curriculum as needed. We will also continue to seek outside funding to add new equipment, vehicles and components to our training fleet.
Should you have any questions, like to enroll in a course, or if you would like to tour our facilities, please call Paul Pate at 651-4187 or paul.pate@csn.edu.
3rd Annual Solar Car Challenge & Alternative Fuel Demonstration
By Brittney Abad, student at Northwest Career and Technical Academy
Northwest Career and Technical Academy [NWCTA] held their 3rd Annual Solar Car Challenge & Alternative Fuel Demonstration on March 24, 2010. Each year the event is located in the school’s banquet hall and the parking lot located in front of the hall. The main focus of the event was to inform the students of NWCTA and the community about being environmentally friendly and provide knowledge of new alternative fuels, including solar energy. Representatives from approximately 15 “green” businesses were also invited to share their philosophies and services that are safe for the environment. Along with gaining useful information, students and visitors were able to view the racing of solar cars that students from the Transportation/Alternative Fuels program created.
Every year the event is coordinated by NWCTA’s Hospitality Department. Hospitality begins working months in advance of the event to make sure it is well planned. Some examples include getting in contact with vendors and sponsors, as well as racers and exhibitors in a professional manner. Many types of marketing and promotion are created to encourage involvement by not only students of NWCTA but by the local community as well. To ensure a successful event, students design a theme for the event, secure and communicate with vendors, collaborate with the Culinary Department, as well as the Transportation/Alternative Fuels Department and much more. Since as far back as November 2009, the three departments have been working and communicating with each other to plan this event.
This year was a bit different from previous years. Instead of having a typical theme like “Go Green” or “Saving the Environment,” students from the Hospitality Department decided that they wanted something new and exciting that would grab the student body’s attention. The students decided to incorporate the famous video game “Mario Kart” with this year’s theme to connect with the racing solar cars side of the event. Decorations in the banquet hall were modeled after characters from the video game. The actual game was connected to a projector and available to be played by the students in attendance for a small fee, which was hosted by NW-CTA’s DECA chapter. The funds raised were used for one of the Nevada DECA State Officers
, Antares Vargas, who is running for a national officer position at this year’s International Career Development Conference in Louisville, Kentucky in April. In addition to the students enjoying themselves with the “Mario Kart” game, NWCTA’s Earth Club also had an abundance of activities for student participation, such as creating crafts and picture frames from reusable material and a “mud” pie walk, which gave students the opportunity to win a pie made by the Culinary program. Meals were also provided by the Culinary program for the vendors and workers in attendance.
In the end, NWCTA’s 3rd Annual Solar Car Challenge & Alternative Fuel Demonstration was a huge success with the participation of the various program areas, the community and our business partners. It is our belief that the knowledge gained by everyone in attendance at the event will “make a difference!”
LVRCCC 2010 Annual Meeting
The Las Vegas Regional Clean Cities Coalition Annual Meeting was held on Thursday, March 4 at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. With nearly 50 members in attendance, the agenda included both reports of previous accomplishments and a brainstorming session on future goals.
The first order of business was to recognize the current Stakeholder members of the LVRCCC by company. Following this recognition Dan Hyde, Executive Director of the LVRCCC, gave an overview of the federal Clean Cities program and its role. He recognized each of the LVRCCC Board members, noting that almost all of them had been involved with the LVRCCC since its inception.
Annalloyd Thomason of Thomason & Associates, Inc. then reviewed the LVRCCC’s accomplishments for 2010, including the “A to Z of AFVs” forum, submission of multiple grant applications with various partners, and the sourcing of new funding for the work of the Coalition. She then led a discussion about the Coalition’s goals for 2011. All LVRCCC members in attendance were asked to give their input on what the most important topics and tactics for the coming year will be. These ideas were captured for review by the Board of Directors at their June meeting.
Before the meeting concluded, an election of Board members was held. Clete Kus, Jim Zeimet and Wayne Meissner were re-elected to their Board positions. Both Gary Weinberg of Western Sierra Services, Inc. and Joe Pellissier of NV Energy were elected to join the Board, making the Board of Directors a team of eleven.
If you are interested in attending future LVRCCC events or becoming a Stakeholder, please visit the LVRCCC website at www.lasvegascleancities.org for more information.
What Is the Process for Registering Fuels with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Which Conventional Fuels and Fuel Additives Are Currently Registered?
By Clean Cities Technical Response Service Team
In accordance with the Clean Air Act, EPA regulations require that each manufacturer or importer of gasoline, diesel or a fuel additive register the product through the EPA Fuels and Fuel Additives Program (www.epa.gov/OMS/fuels.htm) prior to the commercial introduction of the product. Registration is a three-tiered process.
Tier 1: The fuel/additive manufacturer must perform a literature search on the health and welfare effects of their product, collect data to measure and identify combustion and evaporative emissions, and provide a qualitative discussion of the potential population exposure to these emissions during fuel production and use.
Tier 2: Laboratory testing must be conducted in order to detect potential adverse health effects related to the inhalation of the fuel or fuel additive emissions.
Tier 3: Additional tests may be required at EPA discretion on a case-by-case basis based on Tier 1 or Tier 2 results or future needs.
To determine whether a specific fuel or fuel additive is registered, please reference the following websites:
www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/web-fuel.htm (fuels) www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/web-addt.htm (additives)
Clean Cities Coordinators and Stakeholders often inquire about registration requirements for biodiesel. Biodiesel (B100) is a registered fuel and fuel additive with the EPA, but this registration only includes biodiesel that meets the ASTM biodiesel specification, ASTM D6751 (www.astm.org/standards/D6751.htm).
A list of EPA-registered biodiesel can be found at the following Web page: www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/web-biodiesel.htm.
If you have specific questions about the fuel registration process, the contact for the EPA Fuels and Fuel Additives Registration and Health Effects Testing is Jim Caldwell (caldwell.jim@epa.gov or 202-343-9303). The California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopts and enforces fuel specifications and also takes steps to control emissions from marketing and distributing fuels in California. See the ARB Fuels Program website (www.arb.ca.gov/fuels/fuels/htm) for more information.
Board of Directors Meeting
Thursday, June 3, 2010Summer Networking Event
Date TBD
Board of Directors Meeting
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Board of Directors Meeting
LVRCCC Stakeholders and Board of Directors Holiday Luncheon
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Plug-In 2010
San Jose, CA
July 26-29, 2010
www.plugin2009.com
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18th World Hydrogen Energy Conference
Essen, Germany
May 16-21, 2010
www.whec2010.com
More Calendar Listings...
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