By Niki Cervantes
Staff Writer

December 1, 2015 -- A delegation of Santa Monica City officials is attending the United Nations Conference on Climate Change near Paris this week to showcase a municipal project to create an all-electric City bus fleet by 2030.

Mayor Kevin McKeown, Mayor Pro Tem Tony Vazquez and Council member Pam O’Connor are joining the week-long series of environment-related presentations aimed at local governments as a part of the summit, City officials said.

“Santa Monicans can be proud of our long-term leadership on sustainability,” McKeown said in a statement issued Monday. “We are known internationally for our innovation, and for our commitment on climate change.

“Being invited to present at this global gathering is an honor Santa Monica has earned, because our residents, our businesses, and our City staff continue to support Santa Monica’s pioneering environmental efforts.”

On Friday, McKeown will present the City's project to replace old buses with those that run entirely on electricity and charged by “massive solar array” with battery storage at the bus facility, said Suja Lowenthal, planning and community engagement manager for the Big Blue Bus.

Beginning in 2017, the BBB will introduce its first two, 40-foot electric buses, with two more following in 2018, she said. The BBB will add five electric buses in 2022, 29 in 2024, 58 in 2025 and 18 in 2027. It makes bigger jumps in subsequent years before reaching a total fleet replacement in 2030, Lowenthal said.

Lowenthal said the BBB will seek out federal and local grants for funding. She did not provide a total cost for the replacement project, but noted that electric buses are expensive.

A natural gas powered bus costs about $650,000, including tax, she said. By comparison, the price tag for an electric bus is about $900,000. The BBB would also need about $500,000 for changes to infrastructure to support the charging that electric buses require,Lowenthal added.

Buses won’t be replaced until the end of their natural life span at BBB, or usually between 15 years to 17 years of use, she said.
“It will be a progression,” she said. “It won’t be overnight.”

Making the move to an all-electric fleet would cut the City’s emissions by 5,500 metric tons of CO2 each year, the equivalent of removing 1,158 vehicles off the road, she said.

The City’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations by 30 percent by the year 2020. It has already reduced its emissions 14 percent below 1990 levels and has vowed to achieve an 80 percent reduction by 2050, City officials said.

Santa Monica's public transit system already uses only renewable natural gas, Lowenthal said. The fleet currently operates electric-hybrid and “compressed and liquefied natural gas” buses, which are said to emit 80 percent fewer hazardous pollutants, according to BBB officials.

Public transit agencies are increasingly exploring all-electric bus fleets, but local transit officials are not aware of any transit agency in the state that is fully electric, Lowenthal said. Like Santa Monica, many are slowly switching out older buses for new electric replacements, she added.

Santa Monica’s project is one of more than 120 plans from 88 cities and regions in 42 countries, that are being discussed, officials said. It will be on display at the Cities & Regions Pavilion, and is currently featured on at http://tap-potential.org/projects/big-blue-bus-electrification/.

In July, the BBB became one of the country’s first municipal transit authorities to convert its fleet to renewable natural gas. As part of the “Bigger, Bluer Skies” program, the agency began using non-fracked methane harvested from organic waste in landfills.