DIAMOND BAR, Calif. - The Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) is providing nearly $1.9 million dollars in Clean Transportation Funding to the City of Los Angeles to purchase fifty liquefied natural gas (LNG) refuse trucks and twenty-five compressed natural gas (CNG) street sweepers. The MSRC is allocating the funding to the City through its Local Government Match Program, which contributes a "dollar-for-dollar" match toward qualifying projects.
With 307 of 676 trucks operating on LNG, the City of Los Angeles has the nation's largest municipal fleet of alternative fuel solid waste collection vehicles. The City has 54 CNG sweepers in its fleet of 162 street sweepers. The City's goal is to replace all of its diesel-fueled refuse trucks and street sweepers with alternative-fueled vehicles within the next three to five years.
"We are on track to meet this goal, thanks to Clean Transportation Funding from the MSRC," said Detrich Allen, General Manager of the Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department. "As a critical and consistent source of funding, the MSRC has served as a major catalyst in helping the City to expand its fleet of alternative fuel vehicles."
The vehicles that will be replaced are typically about seven years old. Comparing the new LNG refuse trucks and CNG street sweepers to the model-year 2000 diesel trucks they will be replacing, these 75 new alternative fuel vehicles combined will reduce approximately 17.5 tons of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions each year. Nitrogen oxides lead to the formation of smog and particulate matter emissions have been linked to asthma, lung disease, cancer, and premature death.
"Because refuse trucks and street sweepers are vehicles that travel in and out of our local neighborhoods each day, the resulting emission reductions will be significant to improving the City's air quality and quality of life for its residents," noted Gwenn Norton-Perry, Chair of the MSRC. "It's exciting to be a part of the City of Los Angeles, efforts to convert such a large fleet to alternative-fuels and to cleaning up our air."
These new vehicles will be deployed in the San Fernando Valley, the Harbor area, and South Los Angeles, all areas working hard to tackle localized air pollution challenges.
The MSRC allocates Clean Transportation Funding from a $4 surcharge on vehicle license fees, specifically to be used for local projects designed to reduce air pollution from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and buses. Thirty cents of every surcharge dollar goes into the MSRC fund. More than $220 million has been distributed for air pollution-reduction programs since the MSRC was established in 1990. Clean Transportation Funding is heavily leveraged with investments from government agencies, as well as private sources, with billions of additional dollars contributed to projects throughout the region.
Membership of the MSRC is made up of representatives from the transportation agencies of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties as well as the Southern California Association of Governments, a designated regional rideshare agency, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
With 307 of 676 trucks operating on LNG, the City of Los Angeles has the nation's largest municipal fleet of alternative fuel solid waste collection vehicles. The City has 54 CNG sweepers in its fleet of 162 street sweepers. The City's goal is to replace all of its diesel-fueled refuse trucks and street sweepers with alternative-fueled vehicles within the next three to five years.
"We are on track to meet this goal, thanks to Clean Transportation Funding from the MSRC," said Detrich Allen, General Manager of the Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Department. "As a critical and consistent source of funding, the MSRC has served as a major catalyst in helping the City to expand its fleet of alternative fuel vehicles."
The vehicles that will be replaced are typically about seven years old. Comparing the new LNG refuse trucks and CNG street sweepers to the model-year 2000 diesel trucks they will be replacing, these 75 new alternative fuel vehicles combined will reduce approximately 17.5 tons of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions each year. Nitrogen oxides lead to the formation of smog and particulate matter emissions have been linked to asthma, lung disease, cancer, and premature death.
"Because refuse trucks and street sweepers are vehicles that travel in and out of our local neighborhoods each day, the resulting emission reductions will be significant to improving the City's air quality and quality of life for its residents," noted Gwenn Norton-Perry, Chair of the MSRC. "It's exciting to be a part of the City of Los Angeles, efforts to convert such a large fleet to alternative-fuels and to cleaning up our air."
These new vehicles will be deployed in the San Fernando Valley, the Harbor area, and South Los Angeles, all areas working hard to tackle localized air pollution challenges.
The MSRC allocates Clean Transportation Funding from a $4 surcharge on vehicle license fees, specifically to be used for local projects designed to reduce air pollution from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and buses. Thirty cents of every surcharge dollar goes into the MSRC fund. More than $220 million has been distributed for air pollution-reduction programs since the MSRC was established in 1990. Clean Transportation Funding is heavily leveraged with investments from government agencies, as well as private sources, with billions of additional dollars contributed to projects throughout the region.
Membership of the MSRC is made up of representatives from the transportation agencies of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties as well as the Southern California Association of Governments, a designated regional rideshare agency, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.