Clean Energy to supply Calif. fleet with LNG

Clean Energy signed a five-year agreement to supply the Metropolitan Transit District in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Santa Cruz Metro) with LNG fuel for its growing fleet of natural gas-powered buses.  

Santa Cruz Metro plans, by mid-2008, to operate 63 CNG buses, including 10 currently in service and by replacing 53 older diesel-fueled buses with new or re-powered natural gas models. To accommodate this expanding fleet, Santa Cruz Metro has constructed a new L/CNG fueling station at its River Street Metroplex. LNG was chosen for the fuel supply because the utility's local distribution system could not provide pipeline gas to produce CNG in quantity sufficient to meet the anticipated future demand of a growing CNG fleet.  

The LNG supplied by Clean Energy will be converted to CNG to fuel the fleet. Santa Cruz Metro operates fixed-route service on 39 routes (20 on weekends) in Santa Cruz directly and supports the Highway 17 commuter service between Santa Cruz and the Silicon Valley/San Jose area. 

The two services transport close to six million passengers annually.