Area firm receives fuel incentive grant

Company will convert more of its fleet to propane

LANCASTER » The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has awarded a nearly $51,000 fuel incentive grant to Rhoads Energy.

The company is using the grant to retrofit nine new vehicles to either a propane (autogas) or a dualfuel system. The conversions will bring Rhoads Energy’s total number of converted vehicles to 25.

Rhoads Energy offers heating oil, natural gas and propane delivery, HVAC installation and service and fleet fueling services in central Pennsylvania. Among the Rhoads Energy family of companies are Boyertown Oil & Propane and E.G. Smith Inc.

“We’re happy to have our commitment to a greener fleet rewarded by the Commonwealth,” Jennifer Goldbach, Rhoads Energy’s vice president of business development said in a press release. She also drives a propane vehicle every day. “This grant validates Rhoads Energy’s long-term advocacy of propane conversion, both

for our own vehicles and for school bus and commercial fleets.”

Autogas vehicles eliminate an estimated 80 percent of hydrocarbon emissions compared to diesel engines and cost less to operate and maintain, according to the company.

Rhoads Energy’s grant was one of 19 Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants awarded statewide by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, totaling more than $1.6 million. The grants will fund projects estimated to save approximately 180,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually, according to the release.

For more information about Rhoads Energy visit www.RhoadsEnergy.com.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Rhoads Energy will be converting nine more fleet vehicles to propane, a move made possible by a nearly $51,000 grant from the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection. Shown here is a Rhoads propane pickup truck.