Clean Energy Fuels Gets Los Angeles Transit Bus Contract

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) recently announced that it has received a renewable natural gas contract to fuel the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s fleet of transit buses.

Clean Energy Fuels will be offering its Redeem brand of RNG – the first renewable and commercially available vehicle fuel made completely from 100% organic waste– to Los Angeles Metro.

The fueling contract starts with a one-year pilot when Clean Energy Fuels will supply Redeem to one of Metro’s 11 compressed natural gas stations. Interestingly, these buses are currently operated and maintained by Clean Energy Fuels. Every station supplies fuel for about 200 CNG buses. With the implementation of an additional option,Clean Energy will be able to provide Redeem to the entire fleet of 2,200 natural gas buses for another four years, for an estimated 38 million gasoline gallon equivalents (GGEs) each year.

Over the five-year period, the shift to RNG will lower Metro's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by over 520,000 metric tons compared with the use of regular natural gas. The emission level will also decrease about 900,000 metric tons in comparison to the use of diesel.

In a separate development, Metro will start retrofitting and replacing the buses with the new Cummins-Westport Low NOx CNG engines. The new engines are expected to decrease smog-forming NOx and GHG emissions that are 90% below the EPA NOx limit.

Redeem is obtained from biogenic methane or biogas, which is naturally produced methane from the decomposition of organic waste. The gas is then processed, purified and sent into the interstate natural gas pipeline and carried to Clean Energy Fuels' and its customers' stations.

Clean Energy Fuels price chart, however, is unimpressive. Shares of the company have lost 16.8% in the last three months, while the Zacks Utility – Gas Distribution industry registered an increase of 1%.

Clean Energy Fuels currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the same space include SunCoke Energy, Inc. (NYSE:SXC) , Enbridge Energy, L.P. (NYSE:EEP) and Canadian Natural Resources Limited Ltd. (TO:CNQ) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

SunCoke Energy posted a positive earnings surprise of 120.0% in the preceding quarter. The company beat estimates in two of the four trailing quarters with average negative earnings surprise of 35.78%.

Enbridge Energy posted a positive earnings surprise of 128.57% in the preceding quarter. The company beat estimates in three of the four trailing quarters with average positive earnings surprise of 38.22%.

Canadian Natural Resources posted a positive earnings surprise of 30.77% in the preceding quarter. It surpassed estimates in two of the four trailing quarters with average negative earnings surprise of 275.46%.

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