******************************************************************

                      NEWS RELEASE FROM THE

                   CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION

******************************************************************

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
June 8, 1995                         Bob Aldrich - 916-654-4993


     CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION BUYS 224 SCHOOL BUSES
                 DECLARES PROGRAM A SUCCESS!


The California Energy Commission will purchase 224 school buses 
(worth more than $23 million) under the third phase of its Safe
School Bus Clean Fuel Efficiency Demonstration Program. The 
program, which has purchased 787 buses in the last seven years, 
has been declared an unequivocal success by the Commission's 
chairman.

"One of our goals was to get bus manufacturers to begin offering 
clean, alternative fuels as a regular option," said Chairman
Charles Imbrecht. "When we saw the low bid price for a natural 
gas bus as only $12,000 above a regular diesel bus, we knew that 
we had overcome the manufacturers' hesitancy about using
alternative fuels."

The Safe School Bus Program was created by the Legislature in 
1988. Under the program, the school districts retire an equal 
number of older buses built prior to the 1977 Federal Motor 
Vehicle Safety Standards. These older buses are replaced by ones 
that have advanced safety features. Also, as part of the program, 
at least 35 percent of the new buses have to be powered by fuels 
other than diesel or gasoline. The older buses are retired from 
service and cannot be used within California for transporting 
children or adults. Many of the older buses are sold for scrap or 
parts.

The legislation creating the program was authored by Los Angeles 
area Assemblyman Richard Katz, head of the Assembly Transportation
Committee.

"There are 21,500 school buses on the road in California, and 
about 28 percent of them -- more than 6,000 -- were built prior to 
the 1977 standards," said Assemblyman Katz. "We knew we had to do 
something original to begin replacing those older buses. We 
convinced the U.S. Department of Energy and Congressional leaders 
to use federal fine money to buy $100 million dollars in buses.
We've got a ways to go to replace all the older buses, but this 
program is a very good start."


In the third phase of the program, 107 of the buses will be built 
by Blue Bird Body Company using Caterpillar 3126 high-efficiency 
advanced diesel engines. Another 107 buses will be built by Blue 
Bird using John Deere CNG (compressed natural gas) engines. The 
final ten buses will be electric-powered.

When the buses are delivered in 1996 a total of 787 buses will 
have been purchased in the three phases of the $100 million 
program. Funding for the program comes from the federal 
Petroleum Violation Escrow Account, which is made up of fines 
collected from oil companies that over-charged consumers at the 
pumps during the 1970's oil crisis.


                                # # #


Editors and Reporters: 

To have a copy FAXed to you of a list of the school districts 
chosen in Phase 3 and for a copy of a fact sheet on Phase 3 with 
more detailed information, please contact:

Bob Aldrich
Information Officer, California Energy Commission  (916) 654-4993


Below are names of a few of the transportation managers who have 
participated in various phases. You may wish to contact them for 
comments about the program.

Ken McCoy
Antelope Valley Transportation Agency (805) 466-0393

Bud Bankston
Kern High SD (805) 631-3200

Tim Purvis
Poway USD  (619) 586-7500 (Ext. 2043)

Joe Bjerke
Clovis USD (209) 299-9787

Angie Van Vlaricon
Chico USD (916) 891-3907


end of file
File Name: 95-06-08_Safe_School_Bus_Program_Declared_A_Succes