Lancaster Expands Anti-Smog Effort : Environment: City seeks grant to buy electric cars after converting 18 trucks to run on natural gas. The motivation is partly economic.

Already designated a federal “clean air” city, Lancaster is well on its way toward becoming one of Southern California’s first “blue sky” communities.

Under an ambitious program aimed at preventing smog and luring alternative transportation companies to town, the city has converted 18 city trucks to run on natural gas and is seeking a grant to buy electric cars that would be shared by city workers and commuters.

The effort, dubbed the Blue Sky program, also is designed to preserve the clear visibility required by local test pilots.

“One of the primary reasons for wanting to maintain good air quality is so that we can retain some of our major employers, like Air Force Plant 42 and Edwards Air Force Base,” said Susan Barnett, the city’s environmental coordinator.

The clean-air campaign was launched about a year ago, based on a proposal by Calstart, a Burbank-based consortium of 120 companies promoting electric vehicles and other new transportation technologies. Calstart urged city officials to convert their fleets to less polluting fuels and to encourage local employers to do the same, creating a so-called blue sky community.

“Lancaster took the idea and ran with it,” said Bill Van Amburg, a Calstart spokesman. “They took the concept and have become in many ways a model of what a city can accomplish.”

As part of this program, Lancaster officials last week unveiled 18 city trucks that have been altered to run on compressed natural gas, which creates less air pollution. These vehicles will be used by city maintenance workers, code-enforcement officers and building inspectors.

The new fuel is not only cleaner but less costly than gasoline, city officials say.

Lancaster had been paying 97 cents a gallon for unleaded gasoline for the trucks. City officials said a quantity of compressed natural gas that delivers the same mileage costs 70 cents, resulting in a 28% savings in fuel costs. The city also expects lower vehicle maintenance costs.

The city paid about $4,200 per truck to convert to natural gas. A grant from the Southern California Gas Co. will reimburse the city for about half of this cost, so that the city’s net investment is expected to be $37,800.

Lancaster also has applied for a grant to buy electric cars that would be shared by city workers and Metrolink train commuters.

Under this proposal, Barnett said, local commuters would charge the vehicles at home overnight, then leave them in the city’s Metrolink parking lot when they board the train for Los Angeles. City employees would pick up and use the cars during the day, then return them to the Metrolink lot for the commuter to drive home.

Lancaster has already received a $140,000 grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which will be used to build electric car charging stations in public places. It will also cover the cost of updating city laws to allow home-charging of electric vehicles.

These anti-smog efforts earned Lancaster one of California’s first clean-city designations from the U. S. Department of Energy last year.

Lancaster officials hope this commitment will help persuade alternative transportation companies to move their operations to the city, creating new local jobs.

Coleen Walker, a Southern California Gas Co. district manager who serves on the city’s Blue Sky advisory panel, believes this emphasis on alternative fuels will pay off.

“Lancaster is pretty much ahead of the game,” she said. “We have a skilled work force in the Antelope Valley, and we have the commitment of city fathers. When you put those two things together, it’s much more attractive to companies that are looking to move into a new area.”