Activists Threaten to Sue MTA Over Diesel Bus Plan

Environmentalists and bus rider advocates warned Wednesday that they may file suit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority if the transit agency’s board of directors votes today to buy 370 new diesel buses instead of purchasing natural gas vehicles that produce less air pollution.

Gail Ruderman Feuer, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the environmental group is “seriously considering taking legal action” if the MTA board does “the wrong thing and votes for diesel.”

Feuer said the MTA has not done an analysis of the environmental impact of abandoning its long-standing policy of buying new buses powered by cleaner burning alternative fuel like natural gas.

Because of the clean fuels policy adopted by the MTA board in October 1993, the agency is now the nation’s leading operator of natural gas-powered buses. But the MTA staff is recommending that the board switch gears and buy 370 new diesel buses.

The proposed purchase comes three weeks before the South Coast Air Quality Management District is to consider adoption of a rule preventing Los Angeles-area transit operators from buying more diesel buses.

An AQMD study has found that diesel pollution from trucks and buses is responsible for 70% of the toxic air emissions in the Los Angeles region.

The state Air Resources Board has determined that diesel soot can cause cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week proposed drastic reductions in the sulfur content of diesel fuel and strict new standards for diesel engines in future years.

MTA officials argue that it is cheaper to buy and run diesel buses. They insist that the agency is better off with a bus fleet that contains both natural gas and diesel buses.

With the mounting body of scientific evidence that diesel soot causes cancer and respiratory disease such as asthma, representatives of the NRDC, the Coalition for Clean Air and the Bus Riders Union demanded Wednesday that the MTA retain its clean fuels policy and continue to buy new buses that run on natural gas.

Eric Mann, leader of the Bus Riders Union, singled out Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and his transportation advisor, Jaime de la Vega, for criticism, saying that their support for the diesel buses threatens to subvert public health.

Riordan said in an interview Tuesday that he will listen to all the arguments presented on the issue of diesel versus natural gas before making his decision on which way to vote. De la Vega echoed the mayor’s sentiments.

At an MTA committee meeting last week, Chuck A. LeTavec, an engineer with Arco Products Co., said diesel emissions can be reduced to the equivalent of natural gas if the buses use ultra-low sulfur fuel and are equipped with a particulate trap similar to a catalytic converter on a car.

The oil company is testing ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel in a small number of MTA buses, Ralphs grocery trucks and its own gasoline tank trucks, which have been equipped with the particulate traps.

But Todd Campbell, policy director of the Coalition for Clean Air, estimated that the 370 diesel buses that the MTA may buy would produce 1,810 more tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and up to 72 more tons of toxic particulates than an identical number of natural gas buses over a 12-year life span.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to urge the MTA to abandon its plans to establish an exclusive busway on Wilshire Boulevard, saying the move would adversely affect businesses on the heavily traveled corridor.

Councilman Nate Holden, who led the council’s opposition to the MTA proposal, said the transit agency’s plan will “subtract a traffic lane and the parking spaces which serve the businesses in this community.”

The MTA wants to begin studying the environmental impact of exclusive bus lanes on Wilshire through the conversion of existing traffic lanes. “The community has not had a forum to be heard on this subject until now,” Holden said.

“This [bus rapid transit] business is a good idea when you have the right conditions,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. “I don’t think the Miracle Mile is the right place to do that. . . . The community would not be well served by having more buses and losing two lanes. You will upset the economic balance of an area showing real growth.”

As an interim approach, the MTA is planning to introduce on June 24 rapid bus service on Wilshire from Santa Monica through downtown Los Angeles and on Whittier Boulevard as far east as Montebello.

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.