Report Recommends Against Buying Less-Polluting Buses

ORANGE —  County transit officials should not buy less-polluting, alternative-fuel buses because they cost too much, despite an offer by Southern California Gas Co. to pay for a new fueling facility, a new report recommends.

Smog regulators from the South Coast Air Quality Management District have been trying to persuade the Orange County Transportation Authority to buy 50 large buses that run on clean natural gas, methanol or variations of such fuels. They argue that it makes no sense for county transit to continue to buy even so-called clean diesel equipment because of stricter air pollution standards that must be met in less than three years.

Nevertheless, the OCTA board is expected Monday to follow its staff report and approve the purchase of 90 buses powered by so-called “clean” diesel engines, which barely meet current pollution laws. The price is about $18 million.

The staff report by OCTA operations chief John Catoe states that a methanol engine option would increase the purchase price of the 50 large buses by $1 million, and a natural gas engine option increases it by $2 million.

“There are no additional monies in the capital budget to fund these additional costs,” Catoe’s report states.

Catoe said Thursday that diesel bus engines can be rebuilt in two years if necessary to meet stricter clean air standards.

But AQMD spokesperson Claudia Keith questioned the cost of such rebuilding in an interview and argued Thursday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Los Angeles is buying even more buses, and is apparently willing to spend the extra money now to get ones powered by alternative fuels.

In September, the Southern California Gas Co. offered to to construct a liquefied natural gas fueling station and act as OCTA’s agent in buying fuel, if OCTA would agree to buy 20 to 50 LNG-powered vehicles.

But Catoe said the lengthy permit process may not allow enough lead time to install such a facility in time for the scheduled 1995 delivery of new buses needed to serve OCTA’s routes.

“We’ve been in the forefront of the clean air effort for 10 years and we’re conducting extensive tests on alternate fuels,” Catoe said. “But those tests are not complete, and we don’t think it makes sense to invest millions of dollars on a fuel that in two years may not prove to be the one that will really carry us to the year 2000.”

AQMD officials argued that OCTA will receive so-called clean air emissions credits that could be sold to polluters who need credits, under a new credit marketing scheme approved by the AQMD board last week.

But Catoe said the market for such credits is untested: “It’s like having equity in a house. It’s not good for anything until someone says they want to buy your house.”