Today, U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand announced the Department of Transportation has awarded a $1,960,808 federal grant to the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) through the Clean Fuels Program. Specifically, the NFTA will use funding to create a compressed natural gas fueling station at the Frontier Bus Facility in Buffalo.
“This federal investment will spur cleaner air and more efficient transportation for the Buffalo areas residents, businesses and visitors – and help boost the area’s economy, too” said Senator Schumer. “The transition from foreign oil to compressed natural gas is good for our lungs and good for our wallets. I applaud the DOT for choosing to support the NFTA’s work in Buffalo, and to advance our public transit systems nationwide.”
“Western New York is poised to lead in the clean energy economy,” Senator Gillibrand said. “These are smart investments that can make our public transit more fuel efficient and cut fuel costs, while protecting the air we breathe, making us more energy independent, and strengthening our local economy.”
“As we try to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, the addition of the compressed natural gas facility at our Frontier operation is key to moving forward,” said NFTA Executive Director Kimberley A. Minkel. “Additionally, it will help us control costs since compressed natural gas operating costs are typically less than half that of diesel buses.”
The DOT Clean Fuels Program has a two-fold purpose. First, the program was developed to assist nonattainment and maintenance areas in achieving or maintaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and carbon monoxide (CO). Second, the program supports emerging clean fuel and advanced propulsion technologies for transit buses and markets for those technologies
The Clean Fuels Program helps finance eligible projects such as purchasing or leasing clean fuel buses, including buses that employ a lightweight composite primary structure and vans for use in revenue service, constructing or leasing clean fuel bus facilities or electrical recharging facilities and related equipment and projects relating to clean fuel, biodiesel, hybrid electric, or zero emissions technology buses that exhibit equivalent or superior emissions reductions to existing clean fuel or hybrid electric technologies.