SUN VALLEY : LAUSD Buys Buses That Use Natural Gas

In what school officials called an increasing effort to reduce air pollution, the Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday introduced 29 new school buses that run on compressed natural gas.

Purchased with grant money from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Southern California Gas Company, the buses cost about $74,000 each. Diesel buses of the same size cost about $62,000 each.

“We’re trying to get ahead of the game,” said transportation services branch director Antonio Rodriguez. “Eventually, the AQMD or some other regulatory agency will require us to have a certain percentage of our buses operating on cleaner-burning fuels. Out of a fleet of 1,500, 29 is not a huge amount, but we’ll get there.”

According to Rodriguez, the new buses will not emit the black clouds of carbon monoxide particulates seen spewing out of most LAUSD diesel-fueled buses.

In fact, according to gas company officials, the natural gas-operated buses will emit 75% to 90% fewer pollutants than vehicles powered by other types of fuel.

“I get a phone call whenever someone is caught sitting behind one of those buses with the big black clouds,” Rodriguez said. “With these buses, those particulates and the nitrous oxide fumes coming from the regular gas-operated buses will not be coming out of the tailpipe.”

In addition, Rodriquez said, the $500,000 granted by the AQMD and the Gas Co. allowed the district to stay within its budget for new buses.

“With the grants, our total cost was about $1.6 million for the new buses,” he said. “It would have cost us about $1.8 million to purchase [29] diesel buses of the same size.”

Additionally, said Rodriquez, the gas company built a $350,000 compressed natural gas fueling station for the district near its Sun Valley garage, where 23 of the new buses will be based. The other six buses, district officials said, will operate from a garage in Gardena.

The gas company built the Sun Valley station to encourage greater use of vehicles that operate on compressed natural gas.