LITTLE ROCK — Central Arkansas Transit Authority received notice Tuesday that it is receiving a $1 million federal grant to allow the public transit agency to buy buses fueled by compressed natural gas, Executive Director Betty Wineland said.
The State of Good Repair Grant from the Federal Transit Administration will be for $1,046,244, Wineland told her board of directors in an e-mail.
Compressed natural gas, commonly referred to as CNG, is touted as a cleaner burning fuel that helps to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
CATA is scheduled to order replacement buses this year, but its board of directors will first decide whether to include compressed natural gas buses in that order because of the overall cost of converting to an alternative fuel.
CATA has applied for a separate $2 million federal transit grant for a fueling station for CNG buses but hasn’t received approval, Wineland said.
CATA is also waiting on an architectural and engineering study of revisions to its maintenance facility in North Little Rock that will show the projected cost for including a CNG fueling station along with diesel fuel now used.
“We’d need the fueling station grant for that,” Wineland said. “It will be up to the board to decide after the study is in if it wants to move toward CNG.”
The study is expected to be completed in about six weeks, she added.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 07/25/2012