Businessweek

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. provides natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicle fleets in the United States and Canada. Operations The company designs, builds, operates, and maintains fueling stations and supplies its customers with compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles; and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel for medium and heavy-duty vehicles. It also sells non-lubricated natural gas compressors and related equipment used in CNG stations and LNG stations, converts light and medium duty vehicles to run on natural gas, and produces renewable natural gas (RNG), which can be used as vehicle fuel or sold for power generation. The company sells natural gas vehicle fuels in the form of both CNG and LNG. CNG is used in automobiles, light to medium-duty vehicles, refuse trucks, and transit buses as an alternative to gasoline and diesel. CNG is produced from natural gas that is supplied by local utilities to CNG vehicle fueling stations, where it is compressed and dispensed into vehicles in gaseous form. It also provides CNG by delivering and vaporizing LNG to turn liquefied natural gas into compressed natural gas, at locations where no gas pipeline service exists or gas pipeline pressures are inadequate. The company also provides CNG at various LNG stations. LNG is used in trucks and other medium to heavy duty vehicles as an alternative to diesel, where a vehicle must carry fuel energy. It delivers LNG to fueling stations through its fleet of 58 tanker trailers. At the stations, LNG is stored in above ground tanks until dispensed into vehicles in liquid form. The company is building a nationwide network of LNG truck fueling stations, which it refers to as America's Natural Gas Highway on the interstate highway system and in major metropolitan areas. The company also sells RNG produced by its subsidiary, Dallas Clean Energy LLC; sells natural gas vehicles produced by its subsidiary BAF Technologies, Inc.; and sells natural gas fueling compressors and related equipment and maintenance services through its subsidiary, Clean Energy Compression Corp, also known as I.M.W. Industries Ltd. In addition, the company helps its customers acquire and finance natural gas vehicles. The company owns and operates LNG liquefaction plants near Houston, Texas and Boron, California, which it calls the Pickens Plant and California LNG Plant, respectively. The Pickens Plant has the capacity to produce 35 million gallons of LNG per year, and also includes tanker trailer loading facilities and a 1.0 million gallon storage tank that could hold up to 840,000 usable gallons. Additionally, its California LNG Plant is capable of producing 60 million gallons of LNG per year. The company sells LNG to fleet customers, who own and operate their fueling stations. It also sells LNG to fleet and other customers at its public-access LNG stations and for non-vehicle use, such as power generation. Sales The company has its sales representatives in various major operating territories, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix region, Boston region, New York, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Seattle, New Mexico, Chicago, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Minnesota, Kentucky, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Missouri in the U.S.; in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada; and in Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, and China. Customers and Markets As of December 31, 2011, the company had 530 fleet customers operating approximately 25,000 vehicles, including approximately 6,000 transit buses, 2,400 taxis, 1,700 shuttles, and 3,300 refuse trucks. It targets fleet vehicle operators in various markets, such as trucking, airports, taxis, refuse hauling, public transit, and government fleets. As of December 31, 2011, it owned, operated, or supplied 273 natural gas fueling stations in 23 states in British Columbia and Ontario within Canada, as well as in Peru. Trucking: The company’s customers in this market include the Houston distribution centers of Sysco Food Services, a wholesale distributor of food products; United Parcel Service; the Houston distribution center of H.E. Butt Grocery Company; Tr