Clean Energy, the vehicular natural gas company founded by oilman T. Boone Pickens, has started production at what is the largest liquefied natural gas facility in the American Southwest, a move that strengthens his hand at replacing old diesel trucks at major California ports. The plant, located in the Mojave Desert, about 125 miles outside Los Angeles, will produce up to 160,000 gallons per day of liquefied natural gas, but it could later be expanded to 240,000 gallons.
T. Boone Pickens has been an outspoken supporter of replacing diesel with liquefied natural gas to fuel trucks. Mr. Pickens argues that shifting to natural gas would reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.
Burning natural gas also produces fewer emissions than burning gasoline or diesel, although Mr. Pickens has said repeatedly that he’s not motivated by the potential environmental gains.
In betting on natural gas as a transportation fuel, Clean Energy has launched the Clean Truck Program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The program’s aim is to encourage the replacement of old diesel trucks with new trucks that run off of liquefied natural gas. Within five years, the Seal Beach, California, company would like to build enough liquefied natural gas fueling stations at the ports to support more than 8,000 trucks running off the alternative fuel.
In 2005, Clean Energy opened its first liquefied natural gas plant in Willis, Texas. The plant can produce up to 100,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas per day.