Scaqmd Confirms Scheme To Stop Clean-Diesel Buses

Diesel Fuel News, April 30, 2001 by Jack Peckham

South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD, metro Los Angeles) as expected voted to force school districts to buy compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses even though clean-diesel buses (now certified by California Air Resources Board and U.S. EPA) would be far cheaper and deliver more clean air per dollar spent.

The rule "only will apply to school districts if sufficient outside funding is available to cover the additional cost of an alternative fuel bus," SCAQMD said.

If schools can't find outside funds for a CNG bus, plus $13,000/bus extra for CNG or other alt-fuel refueling infrastructure, then they can purchase an "intermediate-emission" diesel bus (the International "green diesel" bus with a PM trap) or a "conventional" bus (non-International) fitted with an approved particulate trap, with outside funding, the SCAQMD rule says.

Fleets buying clean-diesel buses must also retrofit at least 15% of existing buses each year with PM traps. The clean-diesel buses must use ultra-low-sulfur diesel (15 ppm sulfur cap).

SCAQMD got a one-time, $16 million grant from CARB this year for cleaner school buses. But many school districts say that the $13,000/bus for CNG fuel infrastructure is far too little and won't cover future CNG school bus costs, thus stranding high-cost CNG investment. Bottom line: They'll be forced to divert scarce funds from classrooms to subsidize CNG, to the detriment of students.

Example: Victor Valley Union High School has already been forced by skyrocketing gas prices (due to California's energy crisis) to park its three CNG buses. Gas now costs more than four times the cost of diesel for equivalent mileage, as officials told the San Bernadino County Sun.

Another CNG vendor recommended by SCAQMD quoted a $43,000 cost for a one- or two-bus CNG refueling station, more than 300% above the $13,000/vehicle SCAQMD funding allowance for CNG infrastructure. Oceanside Unified School District is similarly paying far more -- $20,000/bus - for CNG infrastructure.

South Coast Clean Air Partnership (SCCAP), which includes some 20 school districts, as well as school boards, businesses, and clean-diesel advocates including BP Arco and International, said SCAQMD failed to address CNG cost problems.

The way SCAQMD structured its funding rule, "you must apply for CNG first, and the worst thing is to get it," then be stuck without a realistic way to pay for infrastructure, SCCAP spokesman Scott McDonald said. As a result, school districts will get a relative handful of high-cost CNG buses, with no money to buy new buses or replace old buses in the future.

Ironically, SCAQMD is bad-mouthing clean-diesel technology as "unproven in public meetings, yet touting PM trap retrofits through its "Adopt-A-School-Bus Foundation" funded by private companies, some of whom are offsetting natural-gas-fired power plant emissions with dollars "donated" for CNG bus schemes. Apparently it's okay to pollute the air in Los Angeles with gas, but not clean-diesel, even if clean-diesel delivers far more pollution reduction per dollar spent.

Likewise, Diesel Technology Forum tried to warn SCAQMD against relying upon a study by Natural Resources Defense Council claiming that diesel buses are inherently a cancer or asthma threat (see Diesel Fuel News 2/19/2001, p7). The single bus NRDC used to calculate health risk may have been defective, and didn't represent any statistically valid risk, according to former Arco chief toxicologist Charles. Lapin (see Diesel Fuel News 4/16/2001, p12). What's more, this study ignored recent scientific studies showing that CNG emissions are just as "toxic," or even more toxic, than trap-equipped diesels.

By contrast, a far more elaborate, objective study by Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools shows that properly maintained diesel school buses lack any health risk threat to passengers (see related story, p9), DTF pointed out.

As for supposed diesel-caused asthma threats, "the National Center for Health Statistics says that asthma levels are up by 55% (1982-1996) but according to EPA, diesel emissions, which are getting cleaner all the time, are down by 36% (1990-1998)," DTF pointed out. Some studies have tried to draw possible links between asthma and diesel exhaust, but lab experiments used to draw such conclusions involved PM exposure levels vastly in excess of typical human exposure levels