Clarence Ley wants to take T. Boone Pickens for a spin in his Chevy sometime, just to show off its zip.

The blue 2003 Cavalier runs on compressed natural gas. And it runs on it well. Ley, a retired employee for Montana Dakota Utilities, showed off the Chevy's horsepower during a quick trip up the Highway 16 hill south of Rapid City last week.

"It's got plenty of zip," Ley said, as he quickly pushed the 35 mph to the speed limit of 50 mph. "The performance is great. And if you opened the hood and looked, you couldn't tell it was a natural gas-vehicle."

You could tell filling up with gas, however. Ley handles that at home, with his own natural-gas compressor that runs off the regular Montana-Dakota Utilities supply. That's unusual in the United States now, but it could be more common if the Pickens Plan gains support.

The billionaire Texas oil man, energy trader and alternative power advocate wants to begin shifting trucks, buses and passenger vehicles from gasoline and diesel fuel - and the huge national expenditure on foreign oil that it demands - to natural gas. Pickens would do that by using the development of wind power in the central United States, including South Dakota, to provide energy for electrical plants that are now run on natural gas.

Ley likes the idea. But he admits that, after a career in the natural-gas business, he's a bit biased. He loves compressed natural gas, even though the double tank arrangement he has to extend the natural-gas driving range from about 150 miles to about 280 miles takes up most of his trunk.

But he said the tank issue and limited range could be solved if American auto manufacturers got serious about producing more natural gas-fed vehicles. And that could happen if gasoline prices stay up in the $4 range.

There was a push for natural gas in vehicles back in the 1980s, when the price of gasoline figured in real dollars was among the highest in history. Ley was with MDU then and coordinated the effort to covert company vehicles to natural gas. He also worked with government in Rapid City on converting part of the city fleet, particularly buses, to run on compressed natural gas (CNG).

"We had about 100 units converted. And we had two compressor stations here in town, one at MDU and another at Big D Oil. They also had one at Big D over in Spearfish," Ley said.

But as gasoline prices fell, so did interest in natural-gas conversion. New emissions requirements also complicated the technology, raising the costs and lowering public interest. The CNG stations closed. City buses went back to traditional fuel. And the MDU fleet went from 65 percent of the vehicles in the four-state area running on natural gas to a few relics of the past.

"At one time we were running 40 compressed-gas vehicles in the Black Hills alone," MDU spokesman Bruce Dahl said Monday. "Now, company wide, I think we're down to three. And I don't even know where they are."

MDU still has compressed-gas fill stations in a few cities in Montana and North Dakota, down from a dozen or so when interest in compressed gas was on the rise.

"There were a number of car manufacturers that were making compressed gas vehicles, and then just about everybody quit," Dahl said. "It was more expensive to convert existing vehicles, and you pretty much need dual-fuel cars around here."

Ley's Chevy is one of those. It runs on either natural gas or gasoline, and will make a seamless transition when the compressed gas runs out.

"If I'm going down the road and expend all the CNG, the computer automatically switches over to gasoline," he said. "There's just an amber light comes on, that's the only way you know."

It costs about $1.50 a gallon to operate on natural gas, and Ley gets about 25 miles per gallon. He gets about 28 mpg with the Cavalier running on gasoline. And pays much more than $1.50 a gallon for gas that was recently above $4.

Pickens predicted during a public appearance in Rapid City last week that gasoline would again rise above $4 a gallon, next year if not later this year. If it does, Ley thinks more people will get interested in a natural-gas option for their vehicles.

Dahl said that's a possibility. There will be complications, including a shortage of fill stations and limited range on CNG. There will likely be an "up charge" of $4,000 or $5,000 on CNG vehicles form the factory, with limited supplies available.

The home compression units like Ley has at his place run about $6,000, Dahl said.

But if gasoline prices take off, so could interest in compressed gas, he said.

"I'm sure it's something that MDU is going to watch," Dahl said. "At the present time, I don't know of any plans to go forward with that. But that could change."

Ley is hoping to help it change, at least on a local level. He already has contacted Mayor Alan Hanks about starting to add CNG vehicles back into the city fleet. Hanks said Monday that he's interested, but also recognizes many hurdles.

"If the technology and infrastructure were put in place, we'd certainly take a look at it," he said. "We want to look at every opportunity to save money and conserve energy. It's a matter of when."

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com