Natural gas station on horizon for Pennsylvania transit authority

11/16/2011

A new natural gas project from the Pennsylvania-based Butler Transit Authority would displace around 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel and reduce nearly 370 tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions upon completion, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

BTA has already secured a $1 million gas station financing grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection to construct a compressed natural gas service station - the first of its kind available for public and private use.

The station will be available to all BTA vehicles. In preparation for the change, the authority has pledged to purchase four natural gas-powered 45-foot coach buses and six similarly powered 30-foot vehicles. It also has plans to replace 20 additional buses with vehicles that are natural gas-run in the future.

The $1 million grant will cover the cost of building the station, but authority executive director John Paul estimates he'll need an additional $1 million for other expenditures such as retrofitting the bus garage with gas detection and ventilation equipment, building a public access road to the site and constructing some new fuel lines.

"It's another big undertaking but it's exciting," Paul told the news source. The facility is expected to be operational by January 2014.