Clean Air Advocates Urge DSNY to Run on Natural Gas

When Manhattan Beer Distributors switched 150 of its 400 delivery trucks to natural gas, it wasn’t an easy task. The company’s head of fleet operations, Juan Corcino, found the fleet could be retrofitted for natural gas, but there were no available filling stations.

So, Corcino decided to build one, according to a Crain’s New York report. The company hopes to become entirely free from diesel over the next seven to eight years. And now, eyes are on the New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to do the same.

According to the report, clean air advocates say DSNY should be able to match the beer distributor's efforts—exceed them, even, by running its trucks on renewable natural gas (RNG).

Earlier this year, environmental nonprofit Energy Vision also urged DSNY to make the switch to RNG.

Crain's New York has more details:

About 20 years ago, as childhood asthma was raging in the South Bronx, Juan Corcino found it hard to breathe on the way to his job in Hunts Point. The culprit was all around him: diesel exhaust–spewing delivery trucks, including those belonging to his employer, Manhattan Beer Distributors.

So when the company's chief executive, Simon Bergson, gave him the task of converting the trucks to much cleaner natural gas—with the help of federal clean-air incentives—he was ready. He had just one problem: Nobody manufactured natural gas trucks.

Eventually Corcino, the head of fleet operations for Manhattan Beer, found the company's vehicles could be retrofitted to upgrade 15 trucks, but he quickly hit another roadblock: no filling stations.

Read the full article here.