DALLAS- AT&T was recently recognized for its efforts to promote the use of natural gas in its fleet operations and educate the public on the alternative fuel option. The company was one of five recipients honored by NGVAmerica and the Clean Vehicle Education Foundation (CVEF) as a 2009 National NGV Achievement Award winner several weeks ago at the Natural Gas Vehicle Conference-Summit in Long Beach, Calif.

After conducting a thorough investigation of natural gas vehicle options, benefits and supply chain availability, AT&T decided in early 2008 to field test 25 CNG-powered installation-and-service (I&R) vans in several of its California depots. After deploying the units and evaluating their performance, AT&T announced in early 2009 that it would replace approximately 8,000 gasoline-powered service vehicles with vehicles powered by CNG over the next five years as part of a larger program to deploy 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles by 2019. BAF Technologies also announced June 30 it will help AT&T with the conversion to compressed natural gas.

The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) estimates AT&T's CNG vehicles will save 49 million gallons of gasoline and reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent - or an equivalent of approximately 211,000 metric tons over its 10-year deployment period.

Ranked No.1 on Automotive Fleet's Top 300 Commercial Fleets of 2009 based on size, AT&T operates 86,099 vehicles in its fleet.