Calif.-based Riverside Transit Agency (RTA) will receive a $2.4 million federal grant to help replace its fleet of heavy-duty compressed natural gas (CNG) buses.

The U.S. DOT notified RTA that it qualified for the federal grant money to purchase eight new replacement vehicles for its aging fleet, which provides bus service throughout western Riverside County. In total, RTA plans to replace its entire fleet with 97 new buses.

Funds are provided through the Federal Transit Administration’s FY2012 Clean Fuels Grant Program. The Clean Fuels grant is part of $59.3 million awarded for 27 projects nationwide that will help transit agencies accommodate cleaner, greener buses that reduce harmful emissions, improve fuel economy and save on operating costs.

RTA has always been an advocate of clean fuel technology. In 1988, prior to today’s laws that regulate bus emissions, RTA was among the first transit systems in the nation to operate low-emission methanol buses. In fact, when RTA’s Riverside headquarters was built in 1986, it included a separate fueling system for alternative clean fuels. In 2001, the agency took its biggest step by replacing its entire fleet of diesel buses with CNG buses.