Tulsa Public School Bus CNG Experiment Over

Tuesday, August 22nd 2006, 10:15 am

By: News On 6

What was a great experiment in alternative fuels has ended in failure. Years ago, when Tulsa Public Schools started running buses on natural gas, it seemed like a good way to save money and cut down on pollution, but now TPS has all but given up trying to keep those buses going.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says it was the lack of spare parts that forced Tulsa Public Schools to abandon natural gas for its school buses. "Can't get a spare part so if I can't fix it, I can't run them." Doug Charette maintains Tulsa's fleet of school buses.

He says manufacturers have all but given up on natural gas partly because there are few public refueling stations. TPS has its own system to refuel the buses and that part works just fine. "And you plug it in and it's filled up and ready to go the next morning." But the buses kept breaking down.

The engines would run hot when the technology was new and once that problem was solved, a key part became impossible to find. The company making the parts went out of business and without them, Tulsa Public Schools had to stop using natural gas. With the natural gas system not working, almost all Tulsa school buses use old-fashioned diesel. It works great, but it's more expensive to operate than natural gas would be. â€œYes we would, there's no question."

TPS has steadily sold off the natural gas buses and soon they'll all be gone. The district could find parts for new buses that run on natural gas, but those cost $30,000 more than the same bus that uses diesel.

So now, Tulsa Public Schools only uses gas in a few cars that won't run on anything else. It's much cheaper per mile and less polluting, but TPS doesn't plan to commit to using it again in buses, until there's some assurance it's a solution for the long term.

Natural gas costs much less per gallon than diesel, but doesn't provide as much mileage. But it's still much cheaper to run, especially compared to gasoline, which Tulsa Public Schools still uses in a few buses.