On Friday, November 10, Mid-Kansas CNG celebrated the Grand Opening of a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station at 636 Thompson Street in Kingman, with a ribbon cutting by the Kingman Area Chamber of Commerce and a luncheon. Owners, Mark Molitor and Mattie Giefer, hosted the event, along with representatives from Central Kansas Clean Cities (CKCC) and KGS, which featured demonstrations of CNG refueling and a tour of the station’s compressor system. The station is open to the public 24 hours daily for refueling of CNG vehicles from autos to tractor-trailers.
Mattie Giefer was looking for a cheaper fuel option for his fleet of vehicles with GCI Construction and turned to Mark Molitor, who is in the oil & gas business, for a solution. Together they formed Mid-Kansas CNG to fulfill the need for natural gas fueling in the Kingman area. After consultation with area trucking companies, a location on the US-54/US-400 corridor was selected. The station will fill a CNG fueling gap between Wichita, 50 miles to the east, and Garden City and Liberal, both about 175 miles west. Molitor and Giefer believe that CNG is a more economical and better environmental choice for transportation. They are open to inquiries about fleet fueling on the site.
Kingman, Kansas has a new fuel station for clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG). Mid-Kansas CNG operates the station at 636 N. Thompson. The station is open to the public now however, the official Grand Opening will be held at 11 am on November 10, 2017. It will include a ribbon cutting by Stacey Meireis, Executive Director of the Kingman Area Chamber of Commerce, and representatives from KGS, Central Kansas Clean Cities and Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalitions.
Mattie Giefer was looking for a cheaper fuel option for his fleet of vehicles with GCI Construction and turned to Mark Molitor, who is in the oil & gas field, for a solution. Together they formed Mid-Kansas CNG to fulfill the need for natural gas fueling in the Kingman area. After consulting with trucking companies, they selected a site on the US-54/US-400 corridor. The station will fill a fueling gap between Wichita, 50 miles to the east, and Garden City and Liberal, both about 175 miles west. Molitor and Giefer believe that CNG is a more economical and better environmental choice for transportation. They are open to inquiries about fleet fueling on the site.
TIME CHANGE. To bring you all the latest developments, we are starting at 9:00 a.m.
Clean, alternative fuels are the future of school district transportation. Propane, natural gas and electric vehicle options are becoming mainstream, and Kansas City districts are already committing to these alternatives to diesel buses. Alternative fuels give school districts a new approach to long-term substantial fuel savings, while protecting students from the risks of diesel emissions.
What: 2017 School Fleet Alternative Fuels Summit
When: Wednesday, November 15, 2017, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm
Where: Blue Springs School District’s Bartow Administrative Center, 1801 Northwest Vesper Street, Blue Springs, MO
Who: School district fleet managers, superintendents and district purchasing professionals.
Guest speakers will cover the latest in alt-fuel technology, reports from districts already using alternative fuels, information on financing alt fuel projects, and a tour of the Blue Springs District’s compressed natural gas fueling and fleet facilities. Lunch is included as part of the program. See full tentative agenda.
Contact David Albrecht at MEC with any questions.
Final week! Survey closes Monday, November 6, 2017
If you work or reside in the Kansas City metro, you are invited to take part in a virtual workshop to update the region’s Clean Air Action Plan. The MARC Air Quality program is in the process of updating the plan and your feedback is requested. The purpose of the plan is to set forth a variety of voluntary strategies to reduce ground-level ozone pollution. Current strategies encompass education, green infrastructure, mobility options (bike, ped, transit), diversified energy sources (such as alternative fuels), green building, etc.
Your feedback will help update these strategies and provide a sense of relative importance of each.
Please take a look at this worksheet which will walk you through an exercise to compare two strategy areas at a time (28 total comparisons). I recommend reading through the list A-F and then compare the letters vertically in each row, highlighting the one you think is more important. Question 1 in the survey will ask you to report your results.
Following this exercise, there are a series of open-ended questions, 4 sets of the same questions, each focusing on 4-5 different strategy areas. The entire exercise takes about 20 minutes. If you can, please fill out the whole thing – take a break if you have to!
SURVEY: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07eelv6vjij7mddl39/start
In the first page of the survey, you have the ability to identify your affiliations. In the “Other” box, please write in Clean Cities, so that MARC can aggregate responses by Clean Cities members and stakeholders.
If you have any questions, please direct them to Doug Norsby, MARC Air Quality Planner.
Thank you in advance for your time in completing the survey exercise.
Catch up on news about the Volkswagen Settlement with these presentations! Included are an overview of the dispute, a breakdown of settlement funding for Missouri and Kansas, as well as a timeline regarding the use of the Environment Mitigation Trust.
Join us at the last of our four events in Kansas on October 3rd to learn about the Volkswagen Settlement and what it means to fleets in the state of Kansas. At each event, we’ll provide the latest information, a forum for discussion, and give you tools to participate in decision-making for the state’s plan for its $15 million share of the VW Environmental Mitigation Trust.
MEC and Kansas City Clean Cities encourage all stakeholders in Kansas to let their views be known on this important settlement. This includes private-sector fleet operators, school district transportation directors, public works and public transportation professionals, along with transportation contractors, alternative energy providers and elected officials. We’re hosting this event to let you know about what’s at stake – and we need you to let the agencies in charge of the settlement what direction you think the state should take.
Join us at Wichita State University Old Town, 238 North Mead in Wichita Kansas, 672025
Click here for parking information. To register for this event, just click here to sign up through EventBrite.
Metropolitan Energy Center invites you to our second Home Energy Open House on Saturday, October 21st from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at 917 Emmanuel Cleaver II Boulevard in Kansas City, MO 64110. It’s is all about home energy efficiency, and how you can make it a reality in your home. This free event is open to the public.
Anyone interested in learning more about home energy efficiency, long-term utility savings and how efficiency lets you live more comfortably is welcome. You’ll be able to meet with energy efficiency experts and contractors, get up to speed on utility rebates for home energy improvements, or learn about adding solar power to your home.
You’ll also be able to tour Project Living Proof, MEC’s energy demonstration site. This 100-year old house was completely gutted and rebuilt with multiple energy-saving and renewable energy technologies. It’s a fascinating look at what’s possible with an existing property, and we enjoy introducing it to our guests.
We’ll also feature free drinks and snacks. Parking is available at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center, 4750 Troost, Kansas City, MO 64110. From the Discovery Center parking lot, look for the wooden walkway to Project Living Proof and enter through the back door.
Please contact David Albrecht at (816) 531-7283 with any questions. Hope to see you there!
After joining Metropolitan Energy Center as Training Director and following promotion to Executive Director in 2014, Warren Adams-Leavitt finished his tenure on August 31st. He’ll be returning to his roots, in a sense, by returning to Communities Creating Opportunities, which he led between 1989 and 2004. He’ll be working on issues of poverty, health and community engagement – and much more – on both sides of the state line in his new position. We’ve greatly enjoyed, and will greatly miss, his unflappable demeanor, his sense of humor and his unstoppable diligence. For more information about CCO, check out their website at http://cco.org/#wearecco
Kelly Gilbert, who began her career at MEC with the Kansas City Clean Cities Coalition in 2008, is our new Executive Director, after stints as Transportation Director and Programs Director. In those nine years, she’s worked with engineering firms, city governments, fleet managers and manufacturers to make clean alternative fuels a reality in Kansas City and in cities and towns across the Midwest. She has also administered millions of dollars in federal grants, and brings a world of real-world experience to the position. Kelly was named to the DOE’s Clean Cities Hall of Fame last month as recognition of her accomplishments, and we’re looking forward to working with her in writing the next chapter of MEC’s history. Congratulations!