SALT LAKE CITY — Troy Anderson was at the gas pump and couldn't have been happier: Filling up was costing him $5 per tank.

Anderson was paying the equivalent of 63.8 cents per gallon for compressed natural gas, making Utah a hot market for vehicles that run on the fuel.

It's the country's cheapest rate for compressed gas, according to the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, and far less than the $3.56 national average price for a gallon of gasoline.

"I'm totally celebrating," crowed Anderson, a 44-year-old social worker who picked up a used Honda Civic GX two months ago. "This is the greatest thing. I can't believe more people aren't talking about it. This is practically free."

Personal ownership of natural gas-fueled vehicles in Utah soared from practically nothing a few years ago to an estimated 5,000 vehicles today, overwhelming a growing refueling network where compressors sometimes can't maintain enough pressure to completely fill every customer's tanks.

"Nobody expected this kind of growth. We got caught by the demand," said Gordon Larsen, a supervisor at Questar Gas, a Utah utility.

Utah has 91 stations, including 20 that are open to the public, mostly in the Salt Lake City area. The others are reserved for commercial users like school districts, bus fleets and big businesses such as a Coca-Cola distributor.

Along the 477 miles of interstates between Rock Springs, Wyo., and St. George, Utah, there are 22 places to pull off and fill up.

California has more stations, but prices are much higher there, the equivalent of $2.50 a gallon for gasoline.

Among major utilities outside Alaska, Questar is the country's cheapest provider of natural gas for home use. It can offer compressed natural gas for cars even more cheaply because of a federal tax credit.

And the incentives don't stop there. Buyers of new and some used and converted vehicles can claim their own federal and state tax credits totaling up to $7,000 — nearly the extra cost of a CNG-fueled vehicle.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, paid $12,000 of his own money to modify a state-owned Chevrolet Suburban last June.

"Converting to CNG gives us an opportunity to promote energy security and support a clean-burning alternative," Huntsman said in an e-mail Thursday. "Plus, who can beat running a Suburban on 63 cents a gallon?"

Utah has caught the attention of Honda, which can't make CNG-equipped Civic GXs fast enough at an Ohio plant. For now, it sells the compact to individuals only in California and New York, but executives say Utah could be next on their list.

Aside from fleet sales, no other automaker offers a CNG-powered car in the U.S.




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