Health, school districts criticized over fuel choice

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 10:19 a.m.

The Clark County District Board of Health passed a resolution calling for the use of cleaner-burning fuels in vehicles owned by local government agencies, but the move stopped short of what a petitioner had asked for.

Jack Greco, a retired gasoline service industry executive and a member of the Air Pollution Control Hearing Board, has scolded the health district and the Clark County schools for not using clean-fuel vehicles.

The hearing board passed a resolution calling for the use of vehicles burning compressed natural gas or propane, and forwarded the resolution to the health board.

The health board also adopted the resolution, but not before diluting language calling on the school district to stop using diesel fuel, which causes relatively more air pollution.

Greco criticized the move.

"The school district has never followed the rules with alternative fuels," he said.

However, Billy Key, the school district's fleet manager, argued that natural-gas fired buses would add up to $43,000 to the price tag for diesel buses, and that the natural-gas buses have not been crash tested.

"The money's not there" to buy the cleaner buses, he said. The school district has about 1,000 buses in its fleet, and purchased 83 more in July.

The "low sulfur" diesel used by the school district meets state regulations for alternative fuels, Key said.

That could change, however. State Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, has introduced legislation that would strip the alternative fuel designation from diesel burners.

The law requires that 90 percent of government agencies' vehicle purchases use alternative fuels.

Health board member and County Commissioner Erin Kenny scolded the school district for not using natural gas vehicles.

"The school district isn't there alongside of us" when spending money for clean-burning vehicles, she said.

If the region faces the loss of federal funding because of failure to meet air quality standards, the school district and the Legislature will regret it, Kenny said.