Two things are needed if natural gas as a vehicle fuel is going to succeed: a) large companies need to convert their fleets; and, b) a natural gas refueling corridor has to be established.
UPS is about to do that. All the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.
If they have the cash, this could be accomplished in less than a year. All they have to do is put in a natural gas pump at designated service stations already along the route.
But this is what I find most interesting: it was a publicly traded corporation that did this, not the government.
Instead, the administration is still pushing "pie in the sky" high speed rail which will never happen in this country.
Wouldn't it have been an eye-opener had the administration directed that Department of Transportation begin a similar nationwide natural gas refueling initiative along the entire US interstate system? A visionary would have called the nationwide trucking and logistic companies, such as Wal-Mart, into the Oval Office and discussed a grand partnering scheme. But such out-of-the-box thinking cannot occur when one partner is so anti-business. Nor can it be done when one partner is so anti-big oil.
Good for UPS. This should work. Before it's all over, UPS might just get into the energy business. It wouldn't be the first time a corporation has transformed itself.
If UPS follows through on this, this is huge.
