REGIONAL STRATEGY FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NATURAL GAS AS A TRANSPORTATION FUEL

Natural gas as a transportation fuel is a practical and viable replacement for petroleum based fuels. To implement natural gas fuel technologies, strategic plans must be put in place by city, state, and national agencies to not only fund the technology with monetary investments but also fund the social change to encourage long term technology growth. With the discovery and exploration of the Marcellus Shale the potential for natural gas infiltration as a fuel into the transportation market has grown exponentially. The region of interest for this specific plan focuses on a 150 mile radius around the Pittsburgh metropolis as the initial test bed region of interest. This region lies upon the Marcellus Shale and therefore there is a positive push towards the use of natural gas fueled by local interest. This region has the intellectual knowhow from universities and government agencies alike to develop technologies from theoretical design to product deployment. To ensure an effective and successful strategy the methodology of this investigation was one which looked to the past, present and the future. Past strategies were studied to determine what key features lead to success, the present was explored to define what laws and regulations are in place which affects the new technologies, and the future benefits of a successful implementation were hypothesized based on economic theory. The proposed strategy is a closed loop operation; meaning one industrious customer is temporarily both the supply and the demand chain of the technology. Public and private investments are vital to a successful implementation in the region by steering social awareness and subsidizing the market.