VIA Metro Transit is joining other public transportation organizations across the state by pledging to convert all of its buses to natural gas by 2025, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
VIA has also joined the National Gas Vehicle Alliance, and the group's President Susan Shifflett says VIA and ratepayers will reap many advantages from the move.
"They'll see a stable fuel price for many years to come, and they will be cleaning up the air while they are saving money," she said.
VIA earlier this year dedicated the largest Compressed Natural Gas fueling station in North America earlier this year as it begins the conversion to CNG. About half of VIA's Diesel-powered buses have already been repaced with CNG, and the plan is to convert the rest of the fleet in the coming seven years.
Shifflett says the transition comes at a time when Texas is now leading the world in the production of natural gas liquids thanks to the fracking boom.
"Right now we don't have any place to put our natural gas, so this is one way that we can use it."
She says the conversion of passenger vehicles to CNG is moving more slowly, due largely to a lack of fueling stations. She says there are in fact 70 CNG fueling stations now open in Texas, with more on the way.