Buses will help airport pollution

The U.S. Department of Transportation has allocated nearly $2 million in federal funds to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Long Island Bus company for the purchase of six new compressed natural gas (CNG) buses.
“This is great news for the MTA and the people of Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk,” said Congressman Gary Ackerman. “These natural gas buses will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil while helping to protect the environment at the same time. It’s safer, healthier, more efficient, and more reliable.”
The CNG buses, which emit 90 percent less carbon monoxide into the environment and will help the MTA not feel the effects of climbing fuel prices, will augment the 33-bus fleet already operating on natural gas in the MTA Long Island Bus’s fleet.
“[With the additional six] 100 percent of our buses are clean buses,” said Neil Yellin, president of MTA Long Island Bus. “We’re very proud of that.”
The buses will diesel-burning buses in MTA’s fleet in eastern Queens County, Nassau County, and western Suffolk County.
MTA Long Island Bus operates 54 lines in total, with 12 lines that run between Nassau and Queens Counties.
According to Yellin, which lines are chosen to receive the six new buses depends on need.
Chief Deputy Whip of the House, Joseph Crowley, who conducted an air quality study in 2004, said, “In a study my office conducted on air pollution in the neighborhoods around LaGuardia Airport, we discovered road traffic to be the biggest source for dangerous emissions. With this grant money, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority can begin to replace its bus fleet with high-tech, low-polluting buses that will help reduce dangerous emissions that ruin air quality, cause respiratory illnesses and harm our environment in Queens.”