New Tool Predicts Economic Impacts Of Natural Gas Stations

In late-September, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory announced a new tool for analyzing the economic impacts of building new compressed natural gas fueling stations. Called JOBS NG, the tool is freely available to the public.

Mostly made up of methane, compressed natural gas is an alternative fuel for cars and trucks that can offer greenhouse gas benefits over gasoline.

Thanks to new methods, natural gas production has boomed in the U.S., raising interest in its use as a vehicle fuel. But there are currently far fewer natural gas stations than gasoline stations in the country, concentrated in a few areas like California, Oklahoma, Utah, and New York.

JOBS NG is designed to help states and local governments evaluate possible economic benefits related to natural gas stations when they are setting new policies. It can also help developers quantify proposals.

The analysis extends to the equipment for the station—accounting for the raw materials that go into components as they are mined, refined, distributed, and assembled.It’s also customizable by state or census region.

JOBS NG is the third in a series of tools designed to estimate economic impacts of energy investments, all based on standard equations used by the Department of Labor to estimate the effects of investment dollars in a region. Earlier tools calculated similar impacts for developing hydrogen fueling stations and for deploying fuel cells in forklifts and for backup power. All three tools are available online at http://jobsmodels.es.anl.gov/main, along with information and guides for using the models.

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