CAT considers change to cleaner-burning fuel

Angela Soo

Thursday, Oct. 25, 2001 | 8:40 a.m.

Diesel-burning buses that spit out smoky clouds may eventually be replaced by a cleaner, odorless fuel system, a community transportation committee said Wednesday.

The Citizens Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the Regional Transportation Commission, met to discuss alternative fuels that would decrease harmful emissions in the Las Vegas Valley.

One method is to convert more buses to a compressed natural gas system, which would reduce carbon monoxide spewed by the buses by 88 percent and eliminate particulate matter. The natural gas fuel system would also reduce hydrocarbons and nitrous oxide.

"It's just like the gas your mom uses on the stove," committee Chairman Daniel Hyde said. "It's just compressed, and it has zero flammability."

About 95 percent of the 140 Citizens Area Transit paratransit buses already use the natural gas system. There are 295 buses on the regular routes, which burn a "dirty" diesel fuel, RTC assistant planning manager Jerry Duke said.

The transformation, Duke said, is "feasible, cost effective and clean."

Seven buses that use the cleaner-burning fuel system are scheduled to arrive in December for initial testing. The new 40-foot buses will run along an existing route and, if proven successful, future buses may be converted.

Union members who represent CAT drivers were skeptical about the new system and said they would rather see an increase in their pay, which is between $11 and $14 an hour.

"We don't know how the natural gas will operate with the larger fixed-route buses," Willie Myles, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union, said. "And our technicians are specialized in diesel buses, not natural gas. If the RTC can afford this kind of money, then give some money to the drivers."

But converting to the new system would mean better air quality and the potential to become less dependent on foreign countries for gasoline, committee member Jean Withers said.

"We've got to depend on ourselves and not foreign countries for our support system," Withers said.