[SUITERS] The price might be high, but here in the U.S., filling your car with gasoline is pretty easy to do. Gas stations are everywhere, but that kind of convenience didn't just happen overnight. Our nationwide network of filling stations has been built over the course of a century, which gives oil-based fuels, like gasoline and diesel, a huge head start over alternative fuels, like hydrogen and natural gas. So, what's it going to take for alternative fuel filling stations to catch on? We'll take a look at that in a moment.

But first a note about "energyNOW!" Our initial funding comes from the American Clean Skies Foundation, which is funded in part by Chesapeake Energy, a major player in the natural gas business. We are editorially independent. Neither the foundation nor its backers control what we say or we do on this program. We have no agenda other than informing you about the critical energy issues that affect us all.

Now, here's energyNOW's Lee Patrick Sullivan with a look at how some companies are taking charge of building an emerging network of natural gas pumps.

[SULLIVAN] I know you've heard the age-old question, "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" I mean, you can't have one without the other. That's the same challenge that is facing long-haul truckers when it comes to converting their fleets to liquefied natural gas. I mean, who would have an LNG truck if there were no stations? And who would build a station if there were no LNG trucks?

This was the problem facing the advocates of the ICTC, the Interstate Clean Transportation Corridor. It's a proposed network of LNG stations allowing long-haul truckers to travel from Salt Lake City across to Reno, through California, past Vegas and on to Phoenix while using cleaner-burning and less expensive liquefied natural gas.

Basically, you're trying to build a bunch of filling stations.

[REBECCA SCHENKER, GLADSTEIN, NEANDROSS & ASSOCIATES] We're trying to build a bunch of fueling stations to support alternative fuels.

[SULLIVAN] One of those fuels is LNG, a natural gas that's been cooled so much that it turns into a liquid. It's stored in this tank right here. Think of it as a large Thermos. Its energy density allows it to be used for long-haul trucks.

There's also CNG, a natural gas that is compressed for use in short-haul vehicles and cars. To accomplish this, the cold LNG, or liquefied natural gas, runs through this set of pipes right here that look a little bit like a radiator. That's where the gas gets back to room temperature. It's then sent through a compressor. That's that annoying banging sound you hear in the background. According to the think tank Resources for the Future, an aggressive program to convert the nation's big rigs from diesel to liquefied natural gas could say 1.2 million barrels of oil a day by the end of the decade. That's about 2/3 of the amount of oil the U.S. currently imports from the Persian Gulf.

So, why hasn't this been done? One word -- infrastructure.

You have people that say, "I'm not going to build an LNG station because there are no LNG trucks," and people say, "I'm not going to buy an LNG truck because there's no LNG station."

[SCHENKER] And we bring them all together at the table and say, "How can we make this happen?"

[SULLIVAN] And that's exactly what happened at this LNG station in Ontario, California. Rebecca Schenker's firm helped get it built. A private company runs the station. UPS donated the land and uses it to fuel its fleet of LNG and CNG vehicles. Big Brown also allows other vehicles in the community to use the facilities.

[SCHENKER] You'll see outside right now Burrtec Waste Industries is fueling, and they're a local refuse collection fleet.

[SULLIVAN] Now, this waste facility vehicle, they probably may not have switched to CNG if they had to build their own station.

[SCHENKER] Exactly. That's why stations like this are important. Where you invest in one station, you're really investing in support for a number of different types of vehicles and fleets in the entire area.

[SULLIVAN] Two fuels, one station. In the fueling station world, that's pretty cool. And speaking of cool, check out how cold that LNG can get. It makes frost here in sunny Southern California. We're talking minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit.

[DJ ROMERO] It's pretty cold.

[SULLIVAN] So you wouldn't want to stick your tongue on that nozzle. It would definitely stick to it.

[ROMERO] No, we don't want to do that.

[SULLIVAN] UPS is investing big in LNG and other alternative fuels to help reduce its carbon footprint.

You're talking about the broad picture of reducing greenhouse gases, but you guys are still running a business. How does this work out as far as the prices of fuel?

[ROMERO] This is running a lot less cost, so there is an alternative to that as saving us money as well.

[SULLIVAN] Romero says LNG costs about half as much as diesel. Despite having ambitions to link four western states into the ICTC, currently there is only one LNG station outside California.

This is major infrastructure.

[SCHENKER] It is, and you are talking, depending on the size of the station, how many users, scalability -- you can start with it smaller then add more tanks later. But you are talking at least a million dollars for an LNG station, in general.

[SUITERS] Despite that price tag, another branch of the ICTC is being planned in Texas. And Chesapeake Energy, the country's second largest natural gas producer, has pledged $1 billion over 10 years to help build LNG and CNG stations across the entire country. That $1 billion is about what the U.S. spends on imported oil every day.

[AUBREY McCLENDON, CEO, CHESAPEAKE ENERGY] I think pretty soon we'll get to a point where you'll have a coast-to-coast and border-to-border network, what we call the America's Natural Gas Highway and System.

[SULLIVAN] But there are still more hurdles to jump. I mean, that's just the chicken part. We still need some eggs. When it comes to passenger cars, Honda is the only automaker that even makes a CNG vehicle. The American Trucking Association is still looking into whether LNG trucks are a good fit for their members.

[CURTIS WHALEN, AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION] We're finding, yeah, generally speaking, as I talk to my members who are operating fleets long enough, they seem to be a little bit higher cost to maintain. They obviously require a different kind of mechanical approach to it, so you can't use your guys, I don't think, that were doing the older trucks. They're going to move to servicing these trucks.

[SULLIVAN] Whalen says, because of strict emissions regulations, a lot of his members just switched from traditional diesel to the new low-sulfur, clean diesel engines just about four years ago. And unlike eggs, these rigs have a long shelf life and are expensive to repair. In Ontario, California, Lee Patrick Sullivan, "energyNOW!"

[SUITERS] While they cost more up front, natural gas trucks pollute less than their diesel counterparts. And that spurred the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest container port, to put more than $12 million into a program to boost the number of LNG and CNG trucks used there.