NATURAL GAS STATION OK'D STEP ENHANCES CITY'S ALTERNATIVE FUEL EFFORTS.Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - The city of Santa Clarita, whose efforts to improve local and regional air quality have been lauded by environmental organizations, will enhance its alternative fuel vehicle Alternative fuel vehicle Conventional fuels such as gasoline and diesel are gradually being replaced by alternative fuels such as gaseous fuels (natural gas and propane), alcohol (methanol and ethanol), and hydrogen. program by purchasing a natural gas fueling station. Since the city began its alternative fuel vehicle program in 1999, it has been steadily replacing gas vehicles with compressed natural gas Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is a substitute for gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel. It is considered to be an environmentally "clean" alternative to those fuels. It is made by compressing natural gas (which is mainly composed by methane (CH4 vehicles. Natural gas releases considerably lower emissions than gas or diesel. In an effort to accommodate its growing fleet of natural gas cars, the council Thursday approved the purchase of a compressed natural gas fueling station. ``The City Council has always taken a leadership role to make sure we are using vehicles that burn the cleanest fuel possible,'' said Frank Oviedo, management analyst for the city. ``The council is taking a strong position that they're interested in seeing the city move into using new technology with our fleet that is environmentally friendly Environmentally friendly, also referred to as nature friendly, is a term used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal harm on the environment.[1] .'' The South Coast Air Quality Management District The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), formed in 1976, is the air pollution agency responsible mainly for regulating stationary sources of air pollution for most of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside County, and all of Orange county. , which regulates air quality in four Southern California counties, provided the funding for about 40 percent of the project, which is expected to cost about $345,000. ``I think it's very commendable that the city of Santa Clarita will be adding to the existing fueling station network for natural gas,'' said Sam Atwood, AQMD AQMD Air Quality Management District AQMD Action Quake Map Depot spokesman, adding that in recent years there has been a significant increase in CNG CNG Compressed Natural Gas CNG Calling (Tone) CNG Comfort Noise Generation CNG Cryptography Next Generation (Microsoft Windows Vista) CNG Centre National de Génotypage vehicles in Southern California, especially in bus fleets and waste-hauling fleets. Currently about 10 percent of the fleet of 100 cars used by city employees are CNG vehicles - mostly medium-size trucks used by the parks department and streets personnel out in the field - but the city doesn't plan to replace its entire fleet. However, the old fueling station could only fuel one car at a time, and it would take overnight to fill. The new fueling station can fuel multiple vehicles. Each fill will take five minutes. ``It's a small but significant step,'' Oviedo said. ``But, they're making a policy statement that in fact we believe that clean burning fuel is good for the air in our valley.'' |
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