LA Metro Increases RNG Sourcing
LA Metro’s plan is to reach a 2030 zero emission target and retain environmental attributes by selling credits earned by dispensing and using RNG.
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is now sourcing nearly half its fuel from renewable natural gas (RNG). The large transit operation’s aggressive move from fossil-derived natural gas to RNG comes one year after putting RNG to the test at one bus division.
Last month, Metro exercised a four-year option in its contract with Clean Energy Renewable Fuels, a subsidiary of Clean Energy Fuels. Through that option, RNG now flows into four more of its 11 bus divisions.
It was a workable transition, as the entire 2,200-truck fleet had been converted to compressed fossil natural gas years earlier in support of the agency’s clean energy policy. The plan now is to gain traction toward two goals: reaching toward a 2030 zero emission target and retaining environmental attributes by selling credits earned by dispensing and using RNG.
“It was the local gas utility that introduced biomethane to us after we’d converted our fleet. It was an educational process for us, but when we looked more into it, the carbon credits were attractive,” says Cris Liban, executive officer of environment and sustainability at Metro Authority.