‘Clean Cities’ Project Still Needing Participation From North Texas Towns

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – We all know why its better to have fleets of vehicles burning natural gas instead of diesel and gasoline.

“Its the environmentally good thing to do,” said Cory Lipe, a fan of Fort Worth’s ‘The T’ bus system. “That’s why I don’t drive a car.”

The question is, how many businesses and cities are following The T’s lead of switching to alternative fuel vehicles? The answer could be worth millions of dollars.

Here’s why. The Federal government says North Texas has to clean up the air, We are in ‘non-attainment’ of EPA standards for ozone.

If we don’t satisfy Congress and the EPA that we’re doing enough to clean the air, the region doesn’t get as much money for road projects.

And the responsibility for proving that we’re doing enough falls on the North Texas Council of Governments, a group of representatives from cities and counties around the region.

And one of the programs helping the council is Clean Cities. They’re taking an online survey to figure out how many fleets of vehicles have cleaner burning vehicles.

The more cities and private businesses that participate, the better the chance at landing more highway money.

But, right now they don’t have the number of entities taking the survey they need.

“The government has to know that these fleets are participating and that they’re doing their part to help reduce emissions in the region,” said DFW Clean Cities Coordinator Pamela Burns. “If they don’t know that they’re doing it its really hard to get funding for these projects.”

From the last survey it conducted (and the figures are just from the 75 fleets that participated), Clean Cities figured alternative fuel vehicles reduced greenhouse gas emissions in our area by 28,000 tons and reduced gasoline consumption by 11.8 million gallons.

“11 million gallons of gas!” Lipe exclaimed after hearing the figure. “That makes me feel better.”

That’s the kind of reaction the council needs in Washington to land the millions of dollars for projects in North Texas.