Alternative Fuels

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday announced $4.4 million in grants to develop infrastructure for natural gas and electric vehicles. The grants, funded by the state's annual utilities gross receipts tax, will encourage the use of alternatives fuels for fleets and transit systems. Waste Management Inc. will receive $400,000 to help pay for a compressed natural gas fueling station in Bristol borough that DEP says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,238 tons per year.

Automakers would have to start making cars that burn clean, alternative fuels such as ethanol, methanol and natural gas by 1993 as part of a massive legislative effort unveiled yesterday to combat urban smog. "We expect cleaner-burning cars to be produced," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D., Calif.). "This puts pressure on Detroit to do what they've already told us they're capable of doing - producing cars that burn alternative fuels. " Rep. Jerry Lewis (R., Calif.) said he expected a fight from the auto industry.

Philadelphia yesterday became the third city in the nation to join a federal experiment in promoting the use of cars and trucks that run on alternative fuels instead of gasoline. The goal of the program, sponsored by the federal Department of Energy, is to reduce pollution, promote the development of domestic energy resources and cut dependence on foreign oil. "This is a good idea for the environment and for the economy," said Susan Tierney, a DOE assistant secretary for policy.

Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, bought the bromide that the public shouldn't watch two products being made - sausage and legislation. When he had to thrash out a new Clean Air Bill, Mitchell, the Senate majority leader, feared lobbying by auto, oil, coal and steel companies would be nasty. He was nervous about squabbling between Midwestern and Eastern senators. So Mitchell decided to hide the messiness behind closed doors. For 23 days Mitchell locked his "Gang of 15" - five senators from each party plus five Bush honchos - in a private room off the Senate chamber.

The elementary school district here soon will be the first in the nation to run half of its school bus fleet on biodiesel, a cleaner-burning soybean-based fuel, state officials announced yesterday. Already, five of the district's 40 yellow buses are running on the blend of soy beans and fossil fuel, which its producers said releases one-third less carbon dioxide, particulate matter and other emissions than standard diesel fuel. An additional 15 buses will be outfitted by January.

Upper Merion Township police officers, whose cars run day and night, might seem like unlikely crusaders for clean air. But every time they step on the gas - as in natural gas - they make a silent statement. Five of their cruisers are rolling tributes to alternative fuels, which emit considerably fewer pollutants than gasoline. But keeping the officers on the road and persuading others to join them is like police work itself: It's a 24-hour business. Before the vehicles arrived last April, some officers worried that their cars could explode in an accident.

With the Bush administration sending conflicting signals about its wishes, a House subcommittee voted yesterday to gut a plan by the President to require auto companies to mass-produce cars that run on clean fuels such as ethanol and methanol. On a 12-10 vote, most of the Republicans and a handful of conservative-to- moderate Democrats on the health and environment subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee decided that auto makers would only have to prove they had the "capacity" to build such cars.

    Home energy prices are down from their record highs, but they're still way up over last year. People who heat with oil are expected to pay 25 percent more to stay warm this winter - a $738 increase for the average house in the mid-Atlantic. Philadelphians who heat with natural gas can expect an increase of about $300 over last year's average bill, assuming a normal winter instead of the mild one we had last time. Starting today, the Daily News is delivering help.

The Philadelphia area has been targeted as one of nine smog-choked urban regions where the Bush administration wants to persuade drivers to switch to cleaner-powered cars. In the next 10 years, hundreds of thousands of cars using alternative fuels like methanol would be shipped to area dealers under a plan proposed yesterday by President Bush. The move to wean drivers away from their gasoline-powered cars in the most smog-plagued areas was among wide-ranging steps Bush proposed to cleanse the nation's air of toxics, smog and acid rain.

Even though signs said the Shell station at 12th and Vine was selling exciting stuff - Fuels of the Future Available Here Now! Energy Independence for America! - most drivers yesterday reached for regular old petroleum. That will change at a debut event today, when a parade of 75-plus vehicles will fill 'er up with fuels that proponents say will give the country cleaner air, reduce dependence on foreign fuel, and lower the emissions that contribute to global warming. Owner John Ciccone has been selling the alternative fuels for several weeks, and he said initial sales had been "promising.

In the Region Conn. loan aids NBC Sports move Connecticut has agreed to provide a $20 million loan and other incentives as economic sweeteners for NBC Sports to consolidate its operations in Stamford. NBC Sports will relocate business functions from Philadelphia and New York to a 32-acre site. The project is expected to create 450 jobs. The Versus sports cable channel and the administrative headquarters for the Comcast regional sports networks, both in Philadelphia, will relocate to Stamford.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday announced $4.4 million in grants to develop infrastructure for natural gas and electric vehicles. The grants, funded by the state's annual utilities gross receipts tax, will encourage the use of alternatives fuels for fleets and transit systems. Waste Management Inc. will receive $400,000 to help pay for a compressed natural gas fueling station in Bristol borough that DEP says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,238 tons per year.

IF YOU WERE on tiny Hanson Street in West Philly on Tuesday, you would've heard a roar loud enough to shake the garage it came from. A nanosecond later came another roar - the cheers of West Philly High School's Hybrid X Team, because the Harley Davidson 1450 engine they'd placed inside their self-built hybrid car had successfully burst to life for the very first time. "It was utterly amazing!" says Sowande Jay, a junior in the school's Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, thrilled by the un-mufflered sound that ricocheted off the walls.

    Home energy prices are down from their record highs, but they're still way up over last year. People who heat with oil are expected to pay 25 percent more to stay warm this winter - a $738 increase for the average house in the mid-Atlantic. Philadelphians who heat with natural gas can expect an increase of about $300 over last year's average bill, assuming a normal winter instead of the mild one we had last time. Starting today, the Daily News is delivering help.

Think it's a snap supplying racing fuel to NASCAR's teams? For Philadelphia-based Sunoco, now in its fourth year as NASCAR's official fuel, it takes extensive planning. "Our planning begins months ahead of the event," Thomas Golembeski, Sunoco's manager of media and public relations, said this week. "Once the fuel gets onto the dedicated fleet of Sunoco tankers, there's a strict chain of custody from the moment the fuel leaves the plant until it arrives at the track. "There are about 100 people on regional crews that oversee that process.

Even as the U.S. economy wheezes and sputters to avoid stalling into a full-blown recession, Philadelphia International Auto Show attendees are about to see that owning a roaring, world-class "supercar" is vastly more affordable, although still a big ticket. Exhibits A and B of this argument, the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 (estimated price, a mere $100,000) and Nissan's artfully carved GT-R 1 (less than $80,000), will draw more than their fair share of lustful onlookers at the annual show, which begins tonight with the $200-a-ticket Black Tie Tailgate Preview Gala to benefit Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and other charities.

As the legislature pushed past its weekend budget deadline, the state's power industry squared off with Gov. Rendell over energy proposals he says are crucial to keeping electricity prices from skyrocketing as decade-old caps expire in the years ahead. Dozens of lobbyists representing utilities and power generators were working the Capitol's anterooms last week, pulling legislators off the floor to urge changes in the package of bills that Rendell calls his "Energy Independence Strategy.

The Senate has decided that U.S. auto fuel standards should finally catch up with the rest of the developed world. "Now in our vehicles, we have better cupholders; we have keyless entry; we have better music systems; we have heated seats," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.). "It is time that we expect more automobile efficiency. " Long past time. U.S. car efficiency standards have stagnated at 27.5 miles per gallon since the 1980s. SUVs and small trucks saw a slight increase to 22.2 m.p.g.

America has been called the Saudia Arabia of coal. A quarter of the world's known coal reserves sit beneath U.S. soil. How tempting it is in these days of high gas prices and volatile oil suppliers to ignore coal's vices and further exploit this domestic fuel, which already provides half of the nation's electricity. But expanding coal isn't a smart choice for America right now. Although cheap and plentiful, it's dirty. Its environmental byproducts outweigh its benefits. Nevertheless, a bipartisan group of coal-state lawmakers wants to grant billions in taxpayer subsidies to turn coal into liquid fuel to power cars, trucks and airplanes.

Gasoline prices continue to edge up - to an average of $2.73 a gallon locally - and Clayton Lane continues to buy Toyota Prius cars for PhillyCarShare's fleet of 300 vehicles. "We buy them constantly because they are among the most fuel-efficient cars on the market," said Lane, deputy executive director of the nonprofit agency that promotes shared car ownership. More and more motorists and fleet buyers are doing the same as gasoline prices continue to rise, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.