Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Schools Get Old Buses Off the Road : Transportation: The Antelope Valley transit agency is replacing 40 of its oldest vehicles with newer and safer models that run on alternative fuels.

It used to be that driving behind a school bus was cause to roll up the windows and close the vents.

That’s not always so anymore in the Antelope Valley, where the transportation agency that transports thousands of students to and from school each day is coming to rely on buses using cleaner alternative fuels.

The Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency is replacing 40 of its oldest buses in its 175-vehicle fleet with an equal number of safer, cleaner-fuel buses. Valued at $4.8 million and funded through the Safe School Bus Clean Fuel Efficiency Demonstration Program, the buses were dedicated at a ceremony this week.

“This is a dream come true,” said Ken McCoy, chief executive officer of the Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency. AVSTA is a joint powers authority that provides bus service to six member school districts in north Los Angeles County.

Technological advances mean the new buses are safer than those they are replacing, McCoy said. And they are also less polluting, he said.

Natural gas buses, for example, produce one-third of the nitrogen oxides and about half the hydrocarbons that typical smoke-belching diesel buses produce. Methanol reduces nitrogen oxide emissions about 65% compared to diesel.

Dennis Winger of the California Energy Commission said, “What is really at stake here is the quality of the air we breathe.”

AVSTA received 16 buses powered by compressed natural gas, 16 buses that run on methanol, also called methyl alcohol, and eight that are diesel-powered with advanced engines that are cleaner and more fuel-efficient than typical heavy-duty engines.

A technical problem, McCoy said, is temporarily keeping the buses using compressed natural gas off the road.

An estimated 800 buses using methanol, natural gas and advanced diesel engines are expected to be provided to school districts in California through the three-phase demonstration program, said Bob Aldrich, spokesman for the California Energy Commission.

Already more than 50 school districts and consortiums have received 563 buses in the first two phases of the program. McCoy said he hopes to secure additional buses for AVSTA in the third phase.

AVSTA has the largest fleet of natural gas-powered school buses in Southern California, according to Southern California Gas Co.

Funds for the $100-million demonstration program come from the Petroleum Violation Escrow Account, which contains money collected by the federal government from oil companies that overcharged consumers during the gas shortage in the 1970s.

Oil companies have paid about $5 billion into the account, with California receiving almost $425 million of the funds, Aldrich said.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) authored the 1988 legislation that created the school bus demonstration program, which allows the replacement of school buses built prior to the adoption of the 1977 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

AVSTA’s older buses have been continually ticketed by the California Highway Patrol because of their excessive exhaust emissions, McCoy said. “Replacing the buses was something we could have never afforded.”

The 78-passenger buses range in price from nearly $83,000 for the advanced diesel buses to about $140,000 for the methanol buses. The buses using compressed natural gas cost more than $117,000 each.

AVSTA has installed a natural gas fueling station for $300,000, paid for by Southern California Gas Co., and a $50,000 methanol fueling station, which was paid for by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The alternative-fuel stations are the only ones in the Antelope Valley.

A second natural gas fueling station, a fast-fill station, is under construction. The schools’ transportation agency and Southern California Gas, McCoy said, are sharing the $100,000 cost.

The alternative-fuel stations at AVSTA’s Lancaster headquarters will be open to the public. Edwards Air Force Base and Air Force Plant 42 intend to buy methanol and compressed natural gas for their vehicles that use the fuels.

“Anyone that needs fuel,” McCoy said, “we can supply it.”