'Breathe' Group Tackles Pittsburgh's Air Quality
Natural gas bus fleet among initiatives by corporate and
foundation partners
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
27 October 2011
By Jon Schmitz
Port Authority CEO Steve Bland said he is often asked whether the
agency could switch to buses powered by natural gas instead of
diesel fuel.
"Here's why it's not a no-brainer: the upfront cost," he said. "What
we've said is we have no idea what that cost is."
He's about to find out. As part of a major regional campaign to
improve air quality, The Heinz Endowments and EQT will fund a
$287,000 study of the feasibility of converting the bus fleet to
natural gas.
That and several other initiatives will be announced today as part
of the formal launch of the Breathe Project, a collective of
nonprofit, business, government and other organizations devoted to
repeating the historic late-1940s collaboration that scrubbed the
thick smoke from Pittsburgh's skyline.
Nearly 40 members have signed on, including U.S. Steel, PNC, the
United Steelworkers, Allegheny County Health Department, the Hillman
Foundation, the Group Against Smog and Pollution and the Allegheny
Conference on Community Development.
The project aims to raise awareness that while the region's air is
far cleaner than in the past, it still ranks with the worst in the
nation, said Robert Vagt, president of The Heinz Endowments.
In addition to focusing on major pollution sources such as
coal-fired power plants and other industry, the campaign hopes to
inspire individual residents to join and take steps to improve air
quality, like planting trees, using mass transit or riding bikes.
It began a multimedia advertising campaign Sept. 18 and has launched
a website, http://www.breatheproject.org.
"We expect both the numbers of organizations and individuals joining
the coalition (at the website) to increase significantly as word
spreads," said Mr. Vagt, whose organization has been involved in
air-quality research for several years.
In March, a study funded by The Heinz Endowments concluded that the
region's air quality remained "unacceptably poor" and a threat to
people's health. It also found that most of the pollution is
generated here, not blown in from afar.
"The good news is that we can do something locally about our air
quality problem," Mr. Vagt said.
Polling and focus groups found a contradiction, he said. People said
the region's air quality was far better than in the past, but when
told it was still comparatively poor, they responded with examples
of relatives', friends' or even their own health problems that might
have been caused by pollution.
The coalition will hold a public meeting soon to set goals, develop
an implementation strategy and determine ways to measure
improvements. The campaign is likely to stretch over several years,
Mr. Vagt said.
The Heinz Endowments, having determined that not enough progress has
been made, is putting up $6 million for several initiatives that
will be announced at a 1 p.m. kickoff event today at the Children's
Museum on the North Side.
In addition to the study of converting buses to natural gas, for
example, the organization will provide $120,000 to Carnegie Mellon
University's Traffic 21 initiative to develop a signal system for
East Liberty that adapts to changes in traffic flow.
Lessons learned from the study would then be applied to ease
congestion and improve flow in Oakland and Downtown, said Caren
Glotfelty, director of the endowments' environmental program.
Mr. Bland said he frequently receives inquiries about changing buses
to natural gas -- some inspired by the state's burgeoning drilling
industry.
He noted there are significant financial obstacles. Buses that run
on natural gas cost $60,000 to $75,000 more than diesel-powered
coaches. Adding natural gas fueling stations and other needed
infrastructure for the conversion would cost tens of millions of
dollars.
Buses would be replaced rather than retrofitted, and based on the
authority's purchasing cycle for buses, converting the whole fleet
of 700 buses might take up to 16 years, he said.
Because of the authority's financial troubles -- a projected $64
million operating deficit for 2012-13 -- the only way a conversion
could happen is if a private entity was willing to pay the upfront
costs in exchange for a percentage of whatever the authority saved
in fuel costs, Mr. Bland said. At present, diesel costs about $1 per
mile traveled while natural gas ranges from 60 to 75 cents per mile,
he said.
"I'm very eager to do it," he said of the study. "I think it will
answer a lot of the questions people have had."
County Executive Dan Onorato also is pleased that the issue is being
studied. "I really think that this is the future and we can take
advantage of the abundance of natural gas in Pennsylvania and clean
the air at the same time," he said.
Jon Schmitz: jschmitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1868. Visit the
PG's transportation blog,
The Roundabout, at www.post-gazette.com/roundabout. Twitter:
@pgtraffic.