HELP SIERRA CLUB BUILD PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR METRO TO CONTINUE ITS NATURAL GAS BUS PROGRAM
May 24, 2004

by Mark Wenzler

A few years ago the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council won a major environmental battle when we convinced the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency (Metro) to buy clean natural gas buses (CNG) and build natural gas fueling stations. It was a major victory for the environment and public health. Over the last three years Metro has purchased 339 natural gas buses, built a natural gas fueling station at its Bladensburg facility in the District, and is constructing a second fueling station at its Four Mile Run facility in Arlington. Metro expects to purchase another 75 buses this summer, bringing the natural gas bus fleet to 414.

Metro was planning to purchase 200 more natural gas buses and build a third fueling station at its facility in Montgomery County, but the natural gas program is now in serious jeopardy.

On May 6, 2004, Metro board members nearly voted to reverse their previous decision to expand the natural gas bus program to Montgomery County (this facility serves many Northwest DC routes). CNG opponents proposed instead to buy 196 diesel buses and 50 electric-diesel hybrids. It was Maryland Gov. Robert Erlich’s appointee to the Metro board, Robert Smith, who orchestrated the vote. Smith, who is now the board chairman, has opposed CNG buses since he joined the board. Fortunately, the vote deadlocked in a 3-3 tie. Most disturbing is one of the District’s Metro board members, Gladys Mack (a mayoral appointee), who previously supported CNG buses, flipped and voted with Robert Smith. Smith is pledging to bring this matter up for a vote again this month or next.

Robert Smith and others based their support for reversing Metro’s commitment to natural gas buses on a March 25 Metro bus division report that concluded that diesel buses are as clean as CNG buses, and that diesel hybrids are a more attractive option than CNG. Two stalwart CNG supporters on the Metro board, D.C. Councilman Jim Graham and Arlington Board member Chris Zimmerman, called for an independent review of the Metro staff paper by the U.S. Department of Energy.

DOE’s Dennis Smith presented his analysis at the May 6 board meeting. He found that the Metro bus staff relied on faulty assumptions, old studies, apples-to-oranges comparisons of technology, and overly optimistic views on the state of diesel-hybrid technology. He also concluded that the Montgomery County bus garage is a good candidate for CNG technology. Unfortunately, CNG opponents on the board rushed Dennis Smith through his presentation, and it’s not clear board members fully understood the problems with the Metro staff report. It also didn’t help when Joan Rohlfs, air quality chief at the Council of Governments (COG), told board members that transit buses are responsible for only 1 percent of the region’s pollution, giving them cover to believe that even if they chose a more polluting technology – diesel – it would make very little difference in air quality. For the people who live near Metro bus facilities or drive behind diesel buses, that 1 percent – if it is an accurate statistic – looms large.

Dennis Smith also told the board that no diesel engine manufacturer has built a commercially available engine that meets new federal emissions standards that go into effect in 2007. There are natural gas engines that already meet the 2007 standards. Meanwhile, diesel-electric hybrids, which show promise, are still an unproven technology and very expensive. There are only 36 diesel-electric hybrids in service today in the United States, and most have seen limited use over the past two to three years.

The Washington-Baltimore region ranks 11th worst in the nation for ozone pollution and 18th worst for sooty particles, according to the American Lung Association’s recent “State of the Air” report. Diesel engines are a major cause of both kinds of pollution, which contribute to asthma, bronchitis and heart disease. In this area, more than 300,000 adults and 50,000 children have asthma, according to the ALA.

Although diesel engines have gotten cleaner in recent years, natural gas technology is still our preferred choice. Metro’s natural gas buses emit 53 percent less nitrogen oxides and 85 percent less total particulate matter than its cleanest diesel buses, according to June 2003 Energy Department study. There is no guarantee that diesel buses bought over the next two or three years will be any cleaner.

We need to let Metro know that there is strong public support to continue its natural gas bus program, and that means buying 200 natural gas buses and building a new natural gas fueling station at its Montgomery facility. Metro should not buy diesel buses until they are shown to be at least as clean as natural gas buses, and should not be gambling on diesel-electric hybrids, which are still in a prototype, experimental stage.
For more information about this campaign, please contact Mark Wenzler or Elliott Negin.