MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - IGS Energy announced last week plans to build and operate a $10 million network of compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations along Interstate 79 from Charleston, W.Va., to Mount Morris, Pa., The Associated Press reports.

IGS President Scott White said the stations will serve the growing number of businesses and residents using CNG vehicles, and that the "CNG Fueling Corridor" will become the first of its kind since drilling in the Marcellus shale field began. He also said that the company anticipates more CNG stations across the state of West Virginia, as well as a similar network in Ohio and possibly Pennsylvania.

"We see it not only as the fuel of tomorrow??but we see it, quite candidly, as the fuel of today," White told the news source.

In the fall of 2012, the West Virginia governor??s Natural Gas Vehicle Task Force said that low prices supported a shift toward CNG vehicles, and that it would look at ways to expand a network of CNG fueling stations, according to the AP. The state actually had CNG stations in operation in the 1990s, but they were ahead of their time. Today, notes White, his company is responding to an "emerging market demand" and suggests that drivers will be able to refuel in about the same amount of time as it takes at a traditional gas station, but for less money.

The AP notes that IGS chose to concentrate in West Virginia because the state government has embraced policies that encourage CNG development, according to White.

Three of the state's biggest gas drilling companies are Colorado-based Antero Resources, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy and Pennsylvania-based EQT Corp., and all three have all committed to using the fueling stations and converting their vehicle fleets to run on CNG.