NEW YORK—The first food truck 100 percent powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) was introduced in New York City on Thursday.
Traditionally food trucks use propane or diesel for power.
The food truck, from Neapolitan Express, serves one of New York City’s icon foods—the pizza.
Neapolitan Express will serve up pizza pies in 90 seconds, using a state-of-the-art, hand-built Italian oven that reaches 900 degrees.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg sampled the pizza at City Hall Park on Thursday, giving his slice a ringing endorsement.
“By using this fuel for kitchen operations and transportation, the truck produces three quarters less in greenhouse gas emissions than trucks that run on gas or diesel,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg, a staunch proponent of using natural gas as a cleaner alternative, was joined by T. Boone Pickens, whose company Clean Energy Fuels Corp. helped fund the food truck.
The mayor said adding food trucks with CNG technology will add to green measures the city already employs, including a line of electric and hybrid taxis and city vehicles.
The only way to currently get natural gas out of the Earth is to use hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as “fracking.” The controversial process has been banned in New York State since 2008, although Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to make a decision once a health review is complete.
When the mayor was asked if more natural gas-powered trucks would mean more fracking, the mayor defended the process.
“It’s up to the governor. I have said we should be fracking, but not in the watershed.” Bloomberg said. “Of all the things we can do, nothing is perfect, but natural gas certainly looks like it can make this country energy independent.”
Pickens, a geologist and engineer who made his vast fortune in the oil and gas industry and who claims to have fracked over 2,000 wells said, “There has been no evidence of anything being damaged.”
