LA Expands Alternative Fuel Fleet
The City of Los Angeles recently received $2.56 million to purchase 50 liquefied natural gas (LNG) refuse trucks, 25 compressed natural gas (CNG) street sweepers, and six CNG articulated buses. The grants were received via the South Coast Air Quality Management District from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee and the Carl Moyer Program. The grants will also be used to purchase 82 diesel emission-control devices for installation on existing refuse trucks.
Los Angeles already has the nation’s largest municipal alternative fuel refuse truck fleet, with 260 of 703 trucks operating on alternative fuels. The city’s goal is to replace all its diesel refuse trucks and street sweepers–about 900 vehicles–with alternative fuel versions in the next four to six years. To accommodate the added vehicles, the city is updating its maintenance yards and adding two LNG/CNG fueling stations, with more to follow.
Los Angeles is concerned about vehicle emissions of particulate matter (PM), which a 2000 California study linked to cancer and respiratory ailments, and oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which contribute to smog formation. “Natural gas is one of the cleanest fuels for the types of problems in our air basin,” says Heloise Froelich, Environmental Supervisor with the Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department, Air Quality Division.
Froelich is also coordinator of the Los Angeles Clean Cities Coalition, which comprises Los Angeles’ government fleets and public/private project partners. Since the coalition began in 1996, it has received almost $14 million in grants for alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure. More than 2,200 of the city’s 15,000 non-emergency municipal vehicles run on alternative fuels. The acquisitions from this latest grant will be operational by spring 2007.
