Sustainability

Managing Our Natural Resources for Future Generations

This is a time of rapid change for the utility industry, and the District is staying abreast of these changes as technology, efficiency and industry best practices evolve. One of the biggest changes in the industry is the growing awareness of the environmental impact of utility operations.

Since M.U.D.’s mission is to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective natural gas and water services to our community, we want to make sure these natural resources are managed well and protected for future generations.

Know that we are aware of the irony of our position: in our desire to help our customers conserve natural resources, we may end up selling less water and natural gas. The widespread changes in the industry demand this shift, and we are committed to finding ways to meet our commitments both to fiscal heath and to environmental responsibility. We also know that in pursuit of greater sustainability, we will never sacrifice quality, safety or reliability for our customer-owners.

We know from the calls and comments we receive that this issue is of high importance to our customer-owners. We share the value of making the Omaha metro area an even better place to live, work and play, and we are pleased to communicate the work we are doing in this area. At the same time, we know there is much more we can do. In coming years, we hope to report on even more exciting progress we can make as a utility that values sustainability.

Omaha Climate Action and Resilience Plan

M.U.D. is partnering with the City of Omaha to develop the Omaha Climate Action and Resilience Plan. The Plan will be a strategic roadmap that empowers our community to build climate resilience and strive for a more sustainable future. The Plan will provide comprehensive guidance on innovative solutions that will improve quality of life, build prosperity, enhance community resilience, and further climate justice.

The Plan will focus on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for and adapt to climate impacts, and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through sequestration. The Plan will provide equitable actions for the City of Omaha, and the communities within, to implement over the next 30 years. M.U.D. will be part of the plan development process. For more information on the Omaha Climate Action and Resilience Plan, please visit omacap.org.

Take the Survey

The City of Omaha’s survey introduces the community to a number of climate and resiliency ideas and allows you to consider the impacts of these ideas in our community, both today and in the future. Your time and consideration of the questions will help us understand Omaha’s climate and resiliency needs and will help guide the creation of the Omaha Climate Action and Resilience Plan. We appreciate your participation.

The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete, and your response is confidential.

 

  • Sustainability Master Plan

    Since M.U.D.’s mission is to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective natural gas and water services to our community, we want to make sure these natural resources are managed well and protected for future generations.

  • Sustainability Report

    Several years ago we published our first ever Sustainability Report. We are taking many steps to make our operations more sustainable, and in this report you will hear our stories.

    This report represents a cohesive summary of the many efforts M.U.D. is taking across our organization to reduce our environmental footprint. Our goal is to present these efforts in one document so that our customer-owners, employees, directors and other stakeholders can understand our commitment to environmental sustainability.

Sustainability

  • How is CNG measured and priced?

    Compressed Natural Gas is sold in GGEs or gasoline gallon equivalents. A GGE has the same energy content (124,800 BTUs) as a gallon of gasoline. CNG is generally 15-40 percent less than gasoline or diesel. The District’s CNG rates are set on a monthly basis and are posted under Compressed Natural Gas. Rates for private fueling with compression done by the customer are generally $.50 cents less per GGE. These rates include all State and Federal road taxes.

  • Where in Omaha can you fill a car with CNG?

    There are currently three stations in Omaha, 5318 “L” Street, 2615 S 64th Street and 13233 Cornhusker Rd. There are over 1,600 CNG stations nationwide.

  • How long does it take to fuel a vehicle with CNG?

    Typical “fast-fill” fuel stations, the kind used at public and large private stations, take approximately the same time as filling a gasoline vehicle, 3-5 minutes. Many of the fuel stations owned by individuals and smaller private fleets operate on a “time-fill” basis that varies according to the owner’s needs but can take several hours to fill a vehicle or fleet of vehicles- usually overnight.  A home-fueling unit typically fuels at a rate of just under ½ gallon per hour which works well for overnight fueling.

  • Are there other states that have public CNG fill stations?

    There are over 1,500 CNG fueling stations nationwide and more than half are available for public use. A complete list and map is available at: U.S. Department of Energy.  Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming all have public stations. There are also well developed networks of public CNG stations in Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and California as well as on the East Coast.

  • Can you convert an existing vehicle to natural gas? If so, how much does it cost?

    While after market conversions are being done by a variety of companies in some states and other countries, the District strongly recommends using only the EPA certified conversions listed on the NGVAmerica list.  This is the best way to insure that the components and installation meet all safety standards.

    These conversions tend to be more expensive than non-EPA certified conversions (around $6,000 to $10,000 for a passenger vehicle, more for medium and heavy duty vehicles) but only EPA certified conversions qualified for the federal incentives which ranged from $2,500 to $32,000 depending on the size of the vehicle.  If/when those incentives are reinstated it is expected that they will continue to apply only to EPA certified conversions.

  • How does using a natural gas vehicle reduce my carbon footprint?

    Exhaust emissions from a typical NGV are much lower than those from gasoline-powered vehicles. For example, the natural gas-powered Honda Civic is recognized by the U.S. EPA as the cleanest commercially available, internal-combustion vehicle on earth.  This Civic is rated by the California Air Resources Board as meeting the very stringent AT-PZEV standard.  In addition, dedicated NGVs produce little or no evaporative emissions during fueling and use. In gasoline vehicles, evaporative and fueling emissions account for at least 50 percent of a vehicle’s total hydrocarbon emissions.

    Typical dedicated NGVs can reduce exhaust emissions of:

    • Carbon monoxide (CO) by 70 percent
    • Non-methane organic gas (NMOG) by 87 percent
    • Nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 87 percent
    • Carbon dioxide (CO2) by almost 20 percent below those of gasoline vehicles.

     

    Natural gas vehicles also produce far less urban emissions than diesel vehicles.  For example, even when the stringent 2007 EPA heavy-duty engine emission standards become applicable, NGVs will be producing only one-sixth the NOx of comparable diesel engines.

  • How far can you travel on a tank of CNG?

    The Honda Civic-natural gas has a standard 8.0 GGE fuel tank which gives it a range of 200-250 miles. Like other CNG vehicles, additional or larger tanks can be used to increase the range. The Chevy Express van with the extra tank option has a range of up to 350 miles. Bi-fuel CNG vehicles that can switch to gasoline have a virtually unlimited range because of their ability to switch to gasoline when CNG is unavailable. CNG tanks are expensive and take up vehicle space, so increased range does come with a trade-off.

  • How many miles do you get to the gallon on CNG?

    Because a GGE of natural gas has the same energy content as a gallon of gasoline CNG cars get basically the same miles per GGE as gasoline-powered cars get per gallon.  The Honda Civic-natural gas gets 24 City, 36 Highway and 28 Combined miles per GGE which is the same mileage as the standard gasoline-powered Honda Civic.

  • How many natural gas vehicles are there in Omaha?

    There are over 350 CNG vehicles in the Omaha area including the District. Worldwide there are over 15 million natural gas vehicles but only about 150,000 in the United States.

  • How much more does it cost to purchase a compressed natural gas car?

    Light-duty vehicles cost $5,000 to $10,000 more than their gasoline-powered counterparts. Those “incremental” costs can be offset by State and Federal incentives and by the fuel savings.

    Other light and medium-duty vehicle conversions can cost $10,000 to $15,000. Several states also offer additional incentives such as rebates or tax credits. Check with your local area to see what incentives are available. The District does offer CNG vehicle rebates for individuals and will consider project incentives for other fleets considering CNG vehicles on a case by case basis.

  • How were the CO2 emissions calculated on your website?

    Electric emissions were obtained from the EIA eGRID 2006 report. The emission data for natural gas was obtained from the EPA Clean Energy Calculations and References as 117 lbs. CO2/decatherm.

  • What is CO2?

    Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a colorless, odorless, non-combustible greenhouse-gas that contributes to global warming. It is formed by complete combustion of fossil fuels (coal, charcoal, natural gas, petroleum) and carbon containing products (such as wood). It also is released through respiration by living organisms and by the gradual oxidation of organic matter in soil.

  • What is the difference between dedicated and bi-fuel natural gas vehicles?

    Dedicated vehicles are designed to run strictly on natural gas. Dedicated Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) vehicles are built from the manufacturer to run only on natural gas while dedicated conversion vehicles have the gasoline or diesel fuel system removed or de-activated. Bi-fuel vehicles can run on either natural gas or gasoline. Dedicated vehicles generally run slightly more efficiently when running on natural gas than do bi-fuel vehicles because the engines are adjusted to run solely on natural gas.

    Dedicated vehicles are limited by the range of the particular vehicle and work well for local fleets that return to a fueling site regularly or commuter vehicles that do not require an extended range. Bi-fuel vehicles work well for vehicles that occasionally need to travel beyond the range of fueling stations.

    Conversion costs for dedicated or bi-fuel vehicles are typically about the same. However, bi-fuel vehicles did not qualify for the previously available Federal tax credits. There is pending legislation before Congress that could reinstate those incentives and possibly extend them to bi-fuel vehicles as well. Details of the currently available vehicle incentives are at: http://www.ngvamerica.org/incentives/federalTax.html.