With the receipt of about $21.5 million grant in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Dollars from the Federal Transit Administration, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero hosted a July 10 event that ushered in the final transition stage from public busing reliant on diesel engines to others powered by clean energy sources that would, as the Mayor said, accomplish the goal of “fully decarbonizing” the city bus fleet and “improving the environment and health of Tucsonans.”
In this case, the new buses funded by this grant will be fueled by natural gas.
In comments at the event (please click here to watch,) Mayor Romero said:
“This grant will allow us to replace our remaining our high emissions diesel fuel buses with 39 state-of-the-art 40-foot compressed natural gas buses. This is a major step for our community to fully decarbonize our transit system and create a cleaner, more accessible, and sustainable city for all Tucsonans…In just three years, we have created community-driven and action-oriented plans, programs, initiatives, and policies to advance our climate goals including the City’s Climate Action Plan: Tucson Resilient Together to become a carbon-neutral city by 2045…Our award-winning EV Readiness Road Map thanks to this work, all new development will be EV-ready and the City of Tucson has a Green Fleet Policy to transition our own fleets to electric. Since 2019, the City of Tucson has been awarded $48.9 million from the FTA…We have the largest electric bus fleet in the Southwest...Carbon emissions (thanks to the new grant) will be reduced by 2,430 metric tons.”
Later, the Mayor posted on Facebook:
“Today we celebrated a $21.4M federal grant to phase out Sun Tran’s remaining diesel buses for Compressed Natural Gas buses. Thank you to Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Deputy Regional Director Amy Changchien for joining us.
This is a major step forward in our commitment to fully decarbonize our transit system and create a cleaner, more accessible, and sustainable city for all Tucsonans.
Thank you to Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility Director Sam Credio and his team for putting together this competitive grant. And thank you to Arizona’s Congressional delegation who voted to pass the #InflationReductionAct.
I especially want to thank our @Sun Tran drivers. Without them, we would not be able to provide the services to our community that they deserve!”
Please click here to read more articles on how Mayor Romero and the City Council are working to make Tucson a clean energy and green sustainable Mecca and a healthier area for people to live.
It is a modest wheel-to-well 22% reduction. CNG is not a much cleaner fuel when production is taken into account. Tucson should be investing in electric bus infrastructure! https://blog.ucsusa.org/jimmy-odea/electric-vs-diesel-vs-natural-gas-which-bus-is-best-for-the-climate/