Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp., an operator of natural gas fueling stations that’s backed by T. Boone Pickens, said Thursday it was awarded $3.6 million from air quality regulators to help open more stations.
The grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District is set to go toward opening nine stations in Southern California.
Clean Energy operates about 170 stations that provide natural gas fuel to taxis, trash trucks and other fleet vehicles.
This year, the company plans to spend about $100 million on a natural gas plant in the Mojave Desert and fueling stations.
Clean Energy went public last year, raising $120 million. Earlier this month, the company filed plans to sell $150 million worth of stock and debt that converts to stock.
Clean Energy has a market value of about $530 million.
Pickens is Clean Energy’s principal shareholder, founder and a director. He started Clean Energy as a tiny part of Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum in the late 1980s. He split it off in the late 1990s.
The company is part of Pickens’ push toward alternative sources of energy. Earlier this month, he called for $1 trillion in government and private investment in windmills to cut dependence on foreign oil.
