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Littlefair told attendees there is an abundance of natural gas in the market, with 280 landfill, dairy and swine RNG projects under construction and 175 ready to get under construction. (Mindy Long for Transport Topics)

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Different fuels have different roles to play in the transition to low-carbon transportation, and having multiple vehicle options running on various power sources will help fleets find the solution that matches their operational needs, spurring adoption.

“If there’s only one to pick from, then that constrains the uptake,” said Sujay Sharma, CEO of BP Pulse Americas.

Sharma, along with other fueling executives, took part in a panel discussion on low-carbon energy in the transportation sector during the 2025 Advanced Clean Transportation Expo. Speakers agreed that biodiesel, renewable diesel, renewable natural gas, hydrogen and battery-electric are all important to reducing emissions.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all solution because every fleet — and it can vary by geography — has different drivers and needs,” said Debi Boffa, CEO of TravelCenters of America.

Caroline Stancell, vice president of hydrogen for mobility for Air Products, said all low-carbon fuels should be valued. “At the end of the day, if we don’t think CO2 has a cost, then diesel is great,” she said, setting off a round of applause from the audience. “If you want to move things forward, you do have to recognize that there is a cost of CO2 and find a way to include that in the equation.”

Lower-carbon, drop-in fuels that can be used in today’s engines are one of the easier entry points for fleets wanting to reduce emissions. For the past two years, TravelCenters of America has been doubling down on its ability to offer biodiesel, and more than half of its sites now have biodiesel infrastructure. “Renewable diesel is another big play for us,” Boffa said.

All of TA’s California sites and some locations in Texas sell renewable diesel, and the company will introduce it at other locations based on the markets. At the same time, the first publicly available heavy-duty electric vehicle charging at TA, which is owned by BP, is slated to open in the third quarter of this year.

Worldwide, BP operates 40,000 EV charging stalls, and the company is making its first forays into charging for long-distance trucking. “If we need trucks’ adoption to increase, we have to work with the big customers as well as the small and medium to find the right corridors to create access to electric charging power,” Sharma said, adding that BP and TA are examining corridors that can be electrified in California.

Creating corridors can give fleets confidence that they’ll have access to the energy source they need when they need it. “If you take something like hydrogen, I think particular hubs or small corridors at this stage are really quite critical. As much as I would like to imagine a national hydrogen network right now, I can’t get there. Not today,” Stancell said. “So you have to start specific locations, and you grow as you have demand and customers.”

Different fuels are in varying states of maturity, which means they all have different investment needs and face different challenges. “We shouldn’t sit up here trying to compare them in any apples-to-apples kind of way, but sometimes I feel like that’s how it gets judged,” said Stacey Orlandi, president of Chevron Renewable Energy Group.

Natural gas, for example, has the benefit of 100 years of natural gas pipelines that have been built, so it doesn’t face the same challenges of other fuels, said Andrew Littlefair, CEO of Clean Energy, a company he co-founded with T. Boone Pickens in 1997. Clean Energy is the largest provider of renewable natural gas and owns and operates 620 fueling stations in 42 states.

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Clean Energy showcased its 100% RNG Class 8 tractor outside the ACT Expo. (Mindy Long for Transport Topics)

Littlefair told attendees there is an abundance of natural gas in the market, with 280 landfill, dairy and swine RNG projects under construction and 175 ready to get under construction. Clean Energy is developing six more RNG projects with BP, and Littlefair expects demand for RNG to increase, especially with the release of the Cummins X15N natural gas engine.

“We did pretty good in the renewable natural gas and natural gas space with not really having the right engine. Now we have a brand. Right now, we have some of the largest fleets in America that are all in various stages of adoption,” Littlefair said.

When working with heavy-duty customers, Littlefair said the fueling experience needs to be similar to that of diesel, which is something RNG can provide. “It can’t be out of route. It has to be in places that have, for the most part, other kinds of amenities,” he said.

At the same time, hydrogen is playing an increasingly important role in the alternative fuel landscape. It is used to desulfurize diesel and in the production of biofuels. “Today, as we look to further electrify mobility, there’s an increasing demand for hydrogen as a direct-use fuel in vehicles,” Stancell said.

Hydrogen can complement EV charging, and Stancell said they shouldn’t be viewed as competitors. “For those applications where you want to electrify the vehicle and where there’s a very high or demanding operation that is required, hydrogen is a very good solution,” she said, adding that it also works well for buses operating in extreme temperatures.

Sharma expects to see more evolution of battery-electric vehicles in the heavy-duty space. “It’s a major megatrend that’s evolving and scaling. We want to be a part of that,” he said.

Littlefair said customers are staying the course despite changes in incentives and regulations. “We don’t see fleets saying, ‘I can’t figure this out. I don’t know what the rules are anymore. I’m just backing away,’” he said.

However, panelists agreed that more certainty would help decision-makers given that it will require billions of dollars in new investments to build out new supply chains and convert vehicles.

“People want to be able to make investments, and they want to at least be able to believe that they can reasonably forecast what their expenses are going to be and what their returns are going to be,” Stancell said.