News
November 12, 2003
Cabbie's a natural at fueling change
By WARREN WOODBERRY Jr.
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Cabbie Bernard Moise, 57, spends just 10 bucks a day to fill
his cab with compressed natural gas so he can shuttle passengers
between Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport.
Moise favors shelling out $10 for the low-cost, environmentally
friendly fuel over the $35 it takes to fill the tank of his
Ford Crown Victoria with conventional gasoline.
"I like it a lot," said the medallion cabbie, who
normally works a nine-hour shift.
"And this is less pollution for the air."
Moise will be making more stops to refuel now that a new compressed
natural gas (CNG) refilling pump was installed at the BP gas
station at LaGuardia Airport.
The extra savings means Moise will be able to keep more tip
money in his pockets, and travel far fewer roads.
"This is my second home," Moise, who hails from
Brooklyn, said recently at the airport gas station.
The new pump at LaGuardia joins 20 BP CNG fueling locations
in the metropolitan area that fuel more than 6,000 vehicles
that run on natural gas.
Natural gas vehicles emit less of some pollutants than vehicles
using traditional fuel, including just half the amount of
carbon monoxide.
The addition at the BP station is an effort to make the product
more widely available to serve the taxi and shuttle fleet
operations that cannot immediately benefit from availability.
"We think this is a major step for the people of Queens,"
said Jim Iacoponi, vice president of BP retail operations.
He added that he expects most of the taxi drivers who work
the airport and use CNG to fill up at the station because
of its proximity to the facility.
Clean Energy, the prime investor in the CNG unit, operates
the facility which consists of a compressor and a pump island
that fuels two vehicles simultaneously.
KeySpan, which has the city's largest number of service fleet
vehicles that use CNG, supplies the fuel to the station.
The involved parties are working with the Port Authority and
the airport manager to convince service fleet operators to
convert their vehicles to CNG.
"This is our first in New York, and we hope to add several
more," said Andrew Littlefair, Clean Energy's CEO. "A
clean natural gas taxi cab is six times cleaner than a 2003
taxi cab."
Moise, who says he owns one of the first cabs to test CNG,
has had his vehicle for 7 years.
He said 90% of the work airport cabbies do is in Manhattan,
but there are no CNG fueling stations in the borough.
"We need more stations in the city," said Moise.
Originally published on November 12, 2003
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