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Columbia City Council authorizes the building of a natural gas fueling station

The Columbia City Council voted to keep taxi stands on local streets.
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The Columbia City Council voted to keep taxi stands on local streets.

The Columbia City Council authorized a license agreement with a California-based fuel company to build and operate a compressed natural gas fueling station on City-owned property Tuesday night.

The council’s plan is for 15 percent of Columbia buses to run on compressed gas. A business development manager for Clean Energy says Columbia will save one dollar and fifty cents for each gallon of compressed natural gas used.

But not all residents are happy about the natural gas station. Protestors rallied in front of City Hall, drumming and holding posters high, before last night’s City Council meeting. One of those protestors is a group called People’s Visioning, a Columbia-based organization that believe that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” for natural gas creates more harm than good.

"This idea taken as a whole, rather than just a tailpipe emission consideration alone, what it takes to get that into the tank should go along with what happens after it comes out of the tank," said Director Monta Welch.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s websitesays natural gas plays a key role in our nation’s clean energy future, they are also conducting a study on potential impacts on drinking and ground water due to hydraulic fracturing.