SoCalGas renews program to deliver renewable natural gas to vehicle fueling stations

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has renewed a program to supply renewable natural gas (RNG) to all 32 of the company's fueling stations, along with six in the San Diego area, signing three-year contracts with suppliers U.S. Gain and Element Markets as demand continues to grow.

In April 2019, SoCalGas began replacing traditional compressed natural gas at fueling stations with RNG to help reduce GHG emissions and meet California's climate goals. RNG is produced by capturing methane emissions from organic waste materials. Depending on the source of organic waste, RNG can be carbon negative because it captures more greenhouse gases than it emits. Since September 2020, the RNG delivered at the 38 fueling stations is considered carbon negative by the California Air Resources Board.

RNG delivered at the 38 fueling stations helped avoid approximately 275,000 metric t of CO₂ emissions over the last three years – equivalent to eliminating nearly 31 MMg of gasoline burned, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.

"Our first three years dispensing RNG at our fueling stations have been a dramatic success, both in terms of moving forward toward our climate goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also in demonstrating the growing demand for clean RNG in our region," said Elsa Valay-Paz, SoCalGas vice president of gas acquisition. "We dispensed 46% more RNG the last year than we did during the first two years, and we expect demand to continue to grow."

The new three-year renewal continues SoCalGas' partnership with U.S. Gain. SoCalGas signed a new contract with Element Markets to provide RNG as a second partner.

"We're honored to continue working with SoCalGas to build on the success of the last three years, connecting their fleet with RNG in support of their decarbonization journey," said Bryan Nudelbacher, U.S. Gain's Director of Business Development. "Successful programs like this can help accelerate RNG adoption across industries, applications and geographies to reduce emissions and make a real impact on climate change."

"We're pleased to have been chosen to partner with SoCalGas as they explore and expand the use of low carbon RNG," said Angela Schwarz, CEO of Element Markets.  "As the leading independent marketer of RNG in the U.S. and, with our recent merger with Bluesource, the largest marketer and originator of carbon and environmental credits in North America, we welcome the opportunity to grow in our role a trusted provider of decarbonization solutions that progress sustainability mandates and voluntary goals."

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