Wilkes-Barre, PA -- August 27, 2019 -- UGI Utilities, Inc. celebrated the opening of a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station at its Wilkes-Barre office on East Northampton Street at a “Ribbon Cutting” event conducted on August 27. The new CNG fueling station will help serve UGI’s growing fleet of Wilkes Barre based natural gas-powered vehicles.
The station and the fleet are part of UGI’s commitment to help reduce emissions and promote clean-burning vehicles.
The new fueling station joins a UGI CNG fueling facility in Bethlehem to serve the Company’s growing fleet of 85 CNG vehicles. An additional 19 CNG-fueled vehicles have been ordered and are expected to be delivered in the near future, which would bring UGI’s total CNG-fueled fleet to 104.
“UGI is pleased to take this significant step forward in promoting clean energy with compressed natural gas,” Bob Stoyko, UGI vice president of marketing and customer relations, said. “Using natural gas as a vehicle fuel improves the environment by lowering emissions. We look forward to working with other area companies to explore the benefits of CNG for their fleets.”
As part of the ceremony, several Northeast Pennsylvania firms who had already converted their fleets to CNG were in attendance and brought heavy-duty trucks to display. These firms included Waste Management; L.T. Verrastro, a beverage distributor; and Core-Mark, a supplier to the convenience industry.
Reducing vehicle emissions benefits the communities served by UGI in a number of ways. The Mid-Atlantic region experiences a significant number of Clean Air Action Days during the summer months and vehicle emissions are a significant contributor.
In addition, CNG vehicles offer advantages over traditional gasoline-burning cars, trucks, and vans. Natural gas burns cleaner than gasoline or diesel fuel and can reduce vehicle emissions by as much as 90 percent. CNG vehicles also offer the benefits of reduced engine maintenance and engine wear, require fewer oil changes, and provides cost savings over gasoline.
UGI Utilities has headquarters in Denver, Pennsylvania and serves more than 700,000 customers in 45 Pennsylvania counties and one county in Maryland. Customers interested in additional information visit the UGI website at www.ugi.com; on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ugiutilities; Twitter at www.twitter.com/ugi_utilities.
