Renewable natural gas on-road fuel use reaches historic high

In Washington, D.C., Natural Gas Vehicles for America and the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas announced that 32 percent of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in calendar year 2018 was renewable natural gas and that biomethane motor fuel use marks a 577% increase over the last five years.

Captured above ground from organic material in agricultural, wastewater, landfill or food waste, RNG – or biomethane – produces net carbon-neutral and even net carbon-negative results when fueling on-road vehicles like short- and long-haul trucks, transit buses, and refuse and recycling collection vehicles.  RNG fuel in 2018 had an EER-adjusted carbon intensity as low as -303.30 according to the California Air Resources Board.  By comparison, California’s electricity grid rated between 25.0 and 38.95.

Over the last five years, RNG use as a transportation fuel has increased 577 percent, displacing over seven million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).  NGVAmerica and the RNG Coalition report that in 2018 a total of 645 million gasoline gallon equivalent of natural gas was used as a motor fuel.  Of that, more than 204 million gasoline gallon equivalent was renewable.