Shares of Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. rose sharply last week after a bill that would provide tax credits for vehicles that run on natural gas was introduced in the U.S. Senate.
Investors sent shares up more than 15% to a market value of about $950 million on word of the legislation proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez and North Carolina Republican Richard Burr.
Clean Energy develops and runs natural gas stations near airports, utility companies, universities, city yards and other places they’re likely to see a lot of use.
The New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011 aims to boost production and development of natural gas, expand tax credits and restore and extend incentives for alternative-fuel vehicles that expired last year.
Nearly 14 million natural gas vehicles are on the road throughout the world, but only about 117,000 are in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Incentives included in the recently introduced legislation would help increase that number to more than 700,000 over the next decade while displacing some 20 billion gallons of fuel and creating more than 1 million direct and indirect jobs, according to a joint statement from the senators sponsoring the bill.
• Headquarters: Seal Beach
• Business: natural gas stations
• Founded: 2001
• Ticker symbol: CLNE (Nasdaq)
• Market value: about $950 million
• Notable: Shares rise on bill that includes incentives for natural gas use introduced in U.S. Senate; signs deal with Fredericksburg, Va.-based fleet-station operator
Haulers
Clean Energy has annual revenue of more than $200 million and hopes to clear earnings hurdles by building a network of fueling stations for the largest segment of the market: commercial haulers that consume some $30 billion of fuel annually.
That’s much bigger than the public sector and waste management industries combined.
Earlier this month, the company inked a deal to add natural gas at fleet fueling stations of Fredericksburg, Va.-based Quarles Pet-roleum Inc.
Quarles operates some 125 fueling stations that serve commercial vehicle fleet customers in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsyl-vania, West Virginia and North Carolina. The first additions of natural gas capacity will come at several Quarles stations in and around Richmond, Va., and Washington Dulles International Airport.
Deal
In October, Clean Energy signed a deal to build and operate a compressed natural-gas truck fueling station for Saddle Creek Transportation Inc.’s headquarters and warehouse in Lakeland, Fla.
The deal calls for Clean Energy to operate the station for 10 years. It is believed to be the first of its kind in the state for the commercial sector.
The Florida fueling station is scheduled to open in December.
Saddle Creek expects to have 40 new natural gas trucks in use by the end of the year and another 40 in early 2012, executives said.
The Saddle Creek contract is the latest in a string of recent Clean Energy deals that aim to bring a low-cost, low-carbon alternative to diesel fuel to a broader market.
$300M
The company has secured $300 million in funding since July to back its plan to develop corridors of natural gas fueling stations throughout the country and other projects.
The goal is to establish what Clean Energy is calling “America’s Natural Gas Highway.”
When the multi-year project concludes, major transportation arteries in California, Texas and the Midwest are expected to have natural gas stations spread out every 250 miles or so.
Legendary oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens started Clean Energy as a tiny part of his Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum in the late 1980s.
He split it off in the late 1990s.
