With diesel costs on the seemingly inevitable rise, Lompoc Unified School District has a way to cut costs and protect the environment—at least when it comes to buses: Use natural gas.
Of the district’s 43 buses, 13 run off of compressed natural gas, and the plan is to expand that portion of the bus fleet. In the meantime, the district is upgrading the plant it uses to fill those buses and expanding it to service the public through a $300,000 grant from the California Energy Commission and an $8,500 grant from the Santa Barbara Foundation.
District Transportation Manager Frances Lemons said there’s a need for a public natural gas station because the closest natural gas plant is in San Luis Obispo. Lemons said she recently received a phone call from someone who requested a fill-up because the SLO plant was down.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Sheldon Smith said the grants wouldn’t pay for the full cost of construction, adding that the money made from sales to the public would be put toward the remainder of the bill. The district has had compressed natural gas buses since 1992, and it does help keep fuel costs down.
Smith said while diesel costs upwards of $3.80 a gallon, what’s called a “diesel-gallon equivalent” of compressed natural gas is between $0.50 and $0.75.
This article appears in Sep 4-11, 2014.