In anticipation of soliciting a Joint-RFP, the States will endeavor to coordinate with local agencies, municipalities, and companies to determine the number of NGVs each State can commit to purchase and the required specifications necessary to meet fleet needs. The Joint-RFP shall require that the ultimate cost of an OEM NGV should be comparably priced to an equivalent gasoline powered model and that warranty and reliability concerns are not compromised. Simultaneously, the States understand the need for continued development and expansion of CNG fueling infrastructure and should endeavor to encourage private investment, predicated on demonstrating an anticipated increase in State NGVs, to meet growing demand.

Pursuant to the terms of the Joint-RFP, to be executed at a later date, the States intend, where practical, to transition new fleet vehicle acquisitions, in committed volumes, to a resulting OEM NGV. Such future acquisitions should, when economically feasible, rely on traditional distribution channels that incorporate local businesses in procurement processes. In continued recognition of the benefits of CNG, the States should also endeavor to pursue fleet vehicle conversions to CNG, where economically compelling, based on a life-cycle cost analysis. The States will also reach out to fellow Governors to determine broader interest and participation in the principles and process outlined in this MOU.
This MOU embodies the principle understandings of the States but shall not create any legal relationship, rights, duties, or obligations binding or enforceable at law or in equity. Notwithstanding the foregoing, each State shall in good faith endeavor to reach a mutually agreeable and economically beneficial Joint-RFP, as contemplated herein. This MOU does not create additional state power, enhance existing state power, or interfere with federal authority or law. This MOU shall continue to demonstrate the States’ understanding until execution of the Joint-RFP, or until otherwise discontinued by either State.

Set forth by:

State of Oklahoma
Mary Fallin, Governor
November 9, 2011

State of Colorado
John Hickenlooper, Governor
November 9, 2011

State of Wyoming
Matthew H. Mead, Governor
November 9, 2011

State of Pennsylvania
Tom Corbett, Governor
November 9, 2011

State of Utah
Gary R. Herbert, Governor
November 16, 2011

State of Maine
Paul R. LePage, Governor
December 2, 2011

State of New Mexico
Susana Martinez, Governor
December 22, 2011

State of West Virginia
Earl Ray Tomblin, Governor
January 16th, 2012

State of Kentucky
Steven L. Beshear, Governor
January 27th, 2012

State of Texas
Rick Perry, Governor
February 6 , 2012

Many of the fueling stations will be co-located at Pilot-Flying J Travel Centers already serving goods movement trucking through an exclusive agreement with Pilot to build, own and operate natural gas fueling facilities at agreed-upon travel centers. Pilot-Flying J is the nation’s largest truck-stop operator with more than 550 retail properties in 47 states.

Major highway segments planned for early opening include, among others, those linking San Diego-Los Angeles-Riverside-Las Vegas; the Texas Triangle (Houston-San Antonio-Dallas/Ft. Worth); Los Angeles-Dallas; Houston-Chicago; Chicago-Atlanta; and a network of stations along major highways in the mid-west region (IL, IN, OH, MO, KY, TN, KS, OK, AL) to serve the heavy trucking traffic in the area.

Scheduled for completion during 2012 and 2013, the 150 first-phase stations coincide with the expected arrival of new natural gas truck engines well suited for heavy-duty, over-the-road trucking. Engine manufacturers and original equipment truck manufacturers such as Cummins-Westport, Kenworth, Peterbilt, Navistar, Freightliner and Caterpillar are expected to have Class-8 trucks available in engine sizes allowing for varied road and driving requirements.

“We are moving quickly to build this important network in order to support the new trucks,” said Andrew J. Littlefair, Clean Energy’s President and CEO. “Already, Clean Energy has engaged over 100 shippers, private fleets and for-hire carriers that have shared their operations to qualify the economic opportunity of operating natural gas trucks, which has helped us, in turn, plan the first phase of the natural gas fueling highway.”

Littlefair noted that the ANGH stations are in addition to the station building planned for the company’s traditional markets in transit, refuse, airport/taxi/shuttle and local/regional trucking, which activity accounted for 63 station projects in 2011.

In July 2011, in a major alliance supporting the transition of trucking from diesel to natural gas fuel, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK), the nation’s second largest natural gas producer, committed an investment of $150 million in Clean Energy to help fund the development of America’s Natural Gas Highway. In September 2011, a group of international investors committed an additional $150 million, and in December 2011, another $150 million was invested, bringing the total investment in Clean Energy in 2011 for fueling station infrastructure development and other capital projects to $450 million.

Currently priced up to $1.50 per gallon lower than diesel or gasoline (depending upon local markets), the use of natural gas fuel reduces costs significantly for vehicle and fleet owners, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions approximately 23% in medium to heavy-duty vehicles. Additionally, natural gas is a secure North American energy source with 98% of the natural gas consumed produced in the U.S. and Canada.

Clean Energy (Nasdaq: CLNE) is the largest provider of natural gas fuel for transportation in North America and a global leader in the expanding natural gas vehicle market. It has operations in CNG and LNG vehicle fueling, construction and operation of CNG and LNG fueling stations, biomethane production, vehicle conversion and compressor technology.

Today Clean Energy fuels over 25,000 vehicles at 273 strategic locations across the United States and Canada with a broad customer base in the refuse, transit, trucking, shuttle, taxi, airport and municipal fleet markets. Clean Energy del Peru, a joint venture, fuels vehicles and provides CNG to commercial customers in Peru. We own (70%) and operate a landfill gas facility in Dallas, Texas, that produces renewable natural gas, or biomethane, for delivery in the nation’s gas pipeline network, and we plan to build a second facility in Michigan. We own and operate LNG production plants in Willis, Texas and Boron, Calif. with combined capacity of 260,000 LNG gallons per day and that are designed to expand to 340,000 LNG gallons per day as demand increases. NorthStar, a wholly owned subsidiary, is the recognized leader in LNG/LCNG (liquefied to compressed natural gas) fueling system technologies and station construction and operations. BAF Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, is a leading provider of natural gas vehicle systems and conversions for taxis, vans, pick-up trucks and shuttle buses. IMW Industries, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary based in Canada, is a leading supplier of compressed natural gas equipment for vehicle fueling and industrial applications with more than 1,200 installations in 24 countries. For more information, visit: www.cleanenergyfuels.com

Forward-Looking Statements – This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including statements about the number and location of stations to be included in the natural gas highway system, the timing for the completion of construction of these stations, the availability and deployment of, as well as the demand for, heavy duty natural gas truck engines, and the potential for a natural gas highway system. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of several factors, including permitting or other delays encountered during the identification of locations for, and the construction of, natural gas fueling stations, including those stations for the natural gas highway, the performance, availability and price of natural gas vehicles relative to gasoline and diesel vehicles and the price per gallon of natural gas relative to diesel and gasoline. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release and, unless otherwise required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — Chrysler Group LLC, the automaker controlled by Fiat SpA, plans to begin selling natural gas- powered pickups in the U.S. this year, said Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of both automakers.

“We are going to bring them here, there is no doubt,” Marchionne said yesterday in an interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Sales will be “limited at first. It depends upon the distribution network.”

Fiat, which owns 58.5 percent of Auburn Hills, Michigan- based Chrysler, has engines using compressed natural gas in Europe. Chrysler executives have said they plan to begin deliveries of vehicles using the technology to the U.S. by 2017.

Sales of compressed natural gas-powered pickups will begin to fleet customers, David Elshoff, a spokesman, said in an e- mail. He declined to say whether Chrysler will target particular buyers such as government or commercial customers.

Marchionne said yesterday that natural-gas engines are the “best option.” He has argued they’re cheaper than competing technologies and that electric cars, which competitors such as General Motors Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are marketing, present “too many obstacles” such as the recharge time for batteries.

The additional cost for an engine using natural gas is $3,000, compared with $3,300 for diesel and $8,000 for an electric hybrid, Alfredo Altavilla, who heads Fiat’s Iveco truck unit, said in September 2010, when Fiat laid out its natural gas aspirations.

Limited Refueling

Infrastructure for refueling natural gas vehicles is limited. The International Association for Natural Gas Vehicles says on its website that there were 1,000 stations and 112,000 natural-gas vehicles in the U.S. as of December 2010.

Honda Motor Co. is the only automaker selling cars with compressed natural-gas engines to retail customers in the U.S. with its $26,155 Civic Natural Gas sedan. The model, formerly the Civic GX, has sold mainly in California and a small number of other U.S. states that have fueling facilities.

The newest version of Civic Natural Gas, named 2012 Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles auto show in November, is now sold by 200 dealers in 36 states, according to Honda. The car was initially available only in California, New York, Utah and Oklahoma.

Chrysler in 2009 separated the Ram and Dodge brands to create a standalone truck unit. Marchionne’s five-year plan for the company includes bringing large- and small-commercial vans to the U.S. in 2012 under the Ram brand based on Fiat’s trucks platforms.

–With assistance from Tim Higgins in Detroit. Editor: Bill Koenig

A re-election campaign is a terrible thing to waste, and this year’s race is already producing miraculous changes at the Obama White House: The latest example of a bear walking on its hind legs is the President’s new embrace of . . . natural gas from shale.

Last week the White House issued its latest report on jobs and it includes a section on “America’s Natural Resource Boom.” The report avers that a few years ago there were widespread “fears of a looming natural gas shortage,” but that “the discovery of new natural gas reserves, such as the Marcellus Shale, and the development of hydraulic fracturing techniques to extract natural gas from these reserves has led to rapidly growing domestic production and relatively low domestic prices for households and downstream industrial users.”

Please pass the smelling salts to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Lisa Jackson at the Environmental Protection Agency.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the White House has favorably mentioned the Marcellus Shale, the natural gas reservoir below Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other Northeastern states. And now he’s taking credit for this soaring production.

As the White House report puts it: “Of the major fossil fuels, natural gas is the cleanest and least carbon‐intensive for electric power generation. By keeping domestic energy costs relatively low, this resource also supports energy intensive manufacturing in the United States. In fact, companies like Dow Chemical and Westlake Chemical have announced intentions to make major investments in new facilities over the next several years.”

And that’s not all: “In addition, firms that provide equipment for shale gas production have announced major investments in the U.S., including Vallourec’s $650 million plant for steel pipes in Ohio. An abundant local supply will translate into relatively low costs for the industries that use natural gas as an input. Expansion in these industries, including industrial chemicals and fertilizers, will boost investment and exports in the coming years, generating new jobs.”

We checked to see if someone slipped a press release from the Natural Gas Council into the White House report by mistake, but apparently not.

The report does add the obligatory disclaimer about hydraulic fracturing that “appropriate care must to be taken to ensure that America’s natural resources are extracted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner” with safeguards “to protect public health and safety.” But no one disagrees with that.

The catch is that this endorsement runs against every energy policy pursued by the Obama Administration for three years. The Institute for Energy Research reports that royalties from oil and gas drilling have fallen more than 90% since 2008 because of Interior Department permitting delays and rejections.

The EPA recently issued a flawed report on groundwater contamination that could shut down the fracking process the President is now touting as a jobs producer. EPA’s political goal is to grab power to supercede state drilling regulation. The industry regards new EPA authority as a real threat to its future.

Each year Mr. Obama has also supported a $40 billion tax hike on the oil and gas industry because, as he put it in 2009, the tax code “encourages overproduction of oil and gas” and “is detrimental to long-term energy security.” Even the Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed extensive new reporting requirements on oil and gas fracking companies.

It’s certainly smart politics for Mr. Obama to distance himself from the anti-fossil fuels obsessives, and no doubt his political advisers are hoping it helps this fall in the likes of Ohio and Pennsylvania. On the other hand, this could be a one-year wonder, and if he wins Mr. Obama might revert to form in 2013. A good test of his sincerity would be to replace Ms. Jackson and Mr. Salazar.

The Pink Truck from Royal Recycle & Disposal on Vimeo.