Groups want RTD to drop diesel

Groups want RTD to drop diesel

Natural gas buses called better for air

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News
December 13, 2004

The nation's largest supplier of natural gas for vehicles has launched a campaign to overturn the Regional Transportation District's recommendation to buy 183 new diesel buses.

Clean Energy ran ads in Denver newspapers Friday, urging the public to attend Tuesday's RTD board meeting and encourage the transit agency to buy buses powered by natural gas instead.

In the spring, RTD put out a request for prices on 63 new buses. Under pressure from alternative-fuel advocates, it included specifications that allowed for hybrid-electric or natural gas buses as well as diesel. Since then, RTD decided to add 120 buses to the order.

The bids on the first 63 came in at $20 million for vehicles powered by so-called clean diesel, a new low-sulfur fuel that cuts emissions over current diesel models. Clean diesel must be used by 2006, when these buses would be delivered to Denver.

The bid for buses powered by natural gas came in at $26.5 million, 32 percent higher.

But Clean Energy and its allies, including the American Lung Association of Colorado and Environment Colorado, say that cleaning Denver's air is worth the higher price - which would be less if RTD pursued federal funding to help offset the cost difference.

"There is a societal issue that has to be addressed," said David Haradon, spokesman for Clean Energy in Dallas. "RTD has a role to play in air quality. The diesel buses that RTD staff wants to purchase are an outdated technology that will worsen air quality. The consequences of this decision will have an impact over the next decade."

RTD, however, says Haradon's company just wants to pressure it into purchasing more expensive buses that won't last as long, powered by a fuel that costs more.

"They're trying to sell a product," said Cal Marsella, RTD general manager. "I'll stand by what we have put together. What I'm about is running reliable, fuel-efficient buses cost-effectively and with reasonable air quality impacts. If their deal made so much sense, I'd be recommending it."

The transit agency estimates that adding natural gas buses to its fleet would add another $75 million in costs to renovate three maintenance shops and fuel depots to accommodate the new technology. Clean Energy says that RTD is overestimating that cost.

The difference in the effects on air quality between the diesel buses RTD proposes to buy and natural gas vehicles is debatable. While diesel engines emit more nitrogen oxides, which lead to ozone, the natural gas vehicles emit more carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons.

To see more of The Rocky Mountain News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.rockymountainnews.com/ .