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November 12, 2001 |
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MTA
Rewarded For Buying Clean-Air
Versión
en español The Air Quality
Management District (AQMD) approved a grant of $2.88 million and the
Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Committee (MSRC) a grant of $2.34
million to reimburse the MTA for its purchase of state-of-the-art
compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. The $5.2 million
reimbursement will cover portions of the MTA’s purchase of 223 New Flyer
buses and 585 North American Bus Industries (NABI) buses. The approximate
cost of a CNG bus is $315,000. The grants average up to $12,000 per bus. “We’ve been
aggressive with our clean fuel program at a time when air quality
regulators have decided they want to promote this technology and we’re
happy to accept their money,” said Douglas Kim, MTA Transportation
Planning Manager in charge of the clean-air grants program. MTA currently operates
the nations largest fleet of CNG buses with over 1,500 on the road today.
By 2004, MTA will have purchase nearly 2,100 new CNG buses. With the addition of
the $5.2 million grants, clean-air revenues to the MTA since 1998 have
reached $23.7 million. While most of the money was for bus purchases, more
than $4.4 million was earned through the sale of clean-air credits to
companies that generate pollution. Because CNG buses emit
only half the smog-producing nitrogen oxides (Nox) permitted by law, the
MTA’s fleet of CNG buses creates “emission reduction credits” that
can be sold to others. The agency had been a leader in pursuing clean-air
grants and sells the equivalent of about 150 tons per year in emission
reduction credits to manufacturing plants and other stationary pollution
sources. “We’ve been able to
generate this revenue and show that you can make money by being the good
guys,” said Kim. “That’s a fringe benefit of being progressive and
pushing clean-air technology.” MTA-146 |
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