Coalition News
Public-Private Effort Lays Groundwork for Hydrogen Gateway
 Two Ford E-450 hydrogen shuttle buses have been transporting students across the Missouri University of Science and Technology since August. |
St. Louis Clean Cities is teaming with federal agencies, a local university, and an automaker to establish Missouri's first permanent hydrogen fueling station in Rolla--home of the Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T).
The new fueling site will serve two Ford E-450 hydrogen buses, which have been shuttling Missouri S&T students across campus since August. Until the site is functional, the shuttles will continue to use a mobile hydrogen station manufactured by Air Products and Chemicals.
So far, the buses have traveled roughly 2,200 miles and consumed about 300 gallons of hydrogen. Since the shuttles are a new service on campus, petroleum displacement statistics are not available, says Steve Tuttle at Missouri S&T. However, he muses, "we have been running the vehicles since mid August, so we like to think we have saved about 75 pairs of sneakers."
Plans for the new hydrogen station are being finalized for installation in 2008. The location and storage capacity of the site will allow the buses to do double duty. Not only will they serve students at Missouri S&T, they will be used to shuttle commuters between Rolla and Fort Leonard Wood, a military site in St. Roberts, Mo.
The project is a joint effort between Missouri S&T, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, the National University Transportation Center, Ford Motor Co., U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Defense Logistics Agency.
According to Kevin Herdler, coordinator for St. Louis Clean Cities, a second hydrogen fueling station site is being scoped for a construction landfill site in Valley Park, Mo. "This location is ideal to serve St. Louis, Lambert International Airport, and Scott Air Force Base in Illinois," says Herdler.
With both hydrogen stations operational, the infrastructure will fuel hydrogen vehicles along 164 miles of Interstate 44, providing a gateway to the hydrogen highway.
Seventh Graders Help Legislate School Bus Idle Reduction in Vermont
 Thanks to students at Brown's River Middle School, buses no longer idle on school grounds throughout Vermont. |
At Brown's River Middle School in Jerico, Vt., Patty Brushett's seventh grade class committed itself to a yearlong project called "Sustainability is Our Mission" (SOM). The project focused on researching the environmental effects of school bus exhaust. As a result of its findings, the preteen group became a driving force behind a law to limit bus idling on school grounds.
Using the fuel savings calculator on the National Idle Reduction Campaign Web site,* the SOM group determined that if 10 buses reduced idling time by five minutes every day for one year, the school district would save 75 gallons of diesel fuel and approximately $185. With 1,800 school buses in Vermont, the annual savings added up to more than $33,000 and 13,500 gallons of diesel.
Armed with this information and the environmental and health consequences of exposure to diesel emissions, the students aggressively advocated for the enactment of a state law that would prohibit bus idling on school property. They wrote letters to all 150 legislators, gave public speeches, and testified to the school board and three legislative committees about how idling is costly, pollutes the air, and affects public health.
Approximately four months after their lobbying efforts began, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas visited Brown's River Middle School to officially sign into effect Act 48, which mandates school bus operators to refrain from idling engines while waiting for children to board or exit buses on school grounds and from starting engines until they are ready to leave school premises.
Not only were the students successful in getting the state law enacted, they were officially commended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their efforts to ban school bus idling statewide.
Brushett says her students were innovative in implementing changes inside the school and in educating their classmates through mini-tutorials on sustainability during morning meetings. Karen Glitman, coordinator of the Vermont Clean Cities Coalition, helped guide Brushett through pressure points the students had to address throughout the program.
*A campaign of EPA's Clean School Bus USA program.
Pennsylvania Project Installs E85 Stations along 200-Mile Stretch
 GPCC designed hangtags for placement in FFVs at area dealerships. |
Pennsylvania's roughly 160,000 flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) drivers are noting progress along the state's E85 corridor--a project to open 14 E85 fueling sites along a 200-mile stretch of highways running from State College to Philadelphia. To date, four of the planned stations are operational and three more are slated to open soon.
The E85 corridor, which is a project of the Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities (GPCC) coalition and funded in part by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, runs between State College and Middletown on Route 322, continues on Route 283 from Middletown into Lancaster County, then follows Route 30 from Lancaster County to Montgomery County. It also includes three stations that are planned along or near Interstate 83 through York County, and one more in Gettysburg along Route 15.
When complete, GPCC estimates that the corridor will dispense 648,000 gallons of E85 each year. Further growth is expected as marketing efforts ramp up in the state.
According to GPCC Coordinator Dennis Winters, goals for the E85 Corridor Project include converting 14 conventional stations to sell E85, educating consumers on the use and benefits of E85, increasing consumer awareness of FFVs and alternative fuels, and promoting growth in FFVs and infrastructure in the greater Philadelphia area.
"The E85 corridor project offers a great opportunity to market E85 to folks with flex-fuel vehicles," says Winters. "Without that infrastructure, people can't really take advantage of the benefits of owning an FFV."
As part of its publicity efforts, GPCC designed E85 hangtags for all new FFVs for sale at area dealerships. The front of the tag distinguishes the vehicle as an FFV, while the back lists nearby E85 retail stations.
Local General Motors (GM) dealerships will be the first to display the hangtags. In addition, the U.S. General Services Administration in Philadelphia agreed to display the tags in all FFVs leased to area EPAct-mandated government fleets.
