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Thursday, August 21, 1997

Texas gas helping clean up New York City

By MICHAEL HOLMES / Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN (AP) - The state of Texas is taking another step in the march to clean up the air - in New York City.

New York City?

Yup.

On Thursday, Ford Motor Co. begins delivering some new taxi cabs to the city, and Texas is supplying the natural gas on which they will run.

"The largest and most visible taxi fleet in the United States is on its way to being the cleanest fleet as well," Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro said.

It isn't just out of the goodness of Texans' hearts that New Yorkers will breath a little less smog, though.

"We produce a great deal of natural gas on state lands. The more natural gas we sell, the more money we make for the school children of Texas, and the more we are able to offset property taxes," Mauro explained Wednesday.

"Natural gas used as a motor fuel offers a huge potential market," he said.

In a statement announcing delivery of the new cabs, Ford said its compressed natural gas-powered Crown Victoria model is the first factory-built alternative fuel vehicle to be used in New York's taxi fleet.

Officials say natural gas is cheaper and burns cleaner than gasoline. If all 11,700 New York cabs were operated on natural gas, 2,600 tons of pollutants would be removed from the city's air every year, Ford said.

The state General Land Office and New York transportation officials made the deal last year for Texas to assist in the conversion of thousands of New York fleet vehicles - taxis, limousines, buses and possibly ferry boats - to natural gas.

Under the pact, Texas guaranteed that New York would receive an adequate supply of natural gas at a reasonable price.

Ron Calhoun, a land office spokesman, said hundreds of New York vehicles have already converted. The hope is that a guaranteed, reasonably priced supply will attract even more natural gas users.

The land office, which manages 20.3 million acres of state land and mineral rights, oversees production of oil and gas on state lands. It often takes the output as "in kind" royalties - oil and gas in lieu of cash payments. That product then is sold, generating additional money for the state's Permanent School Fund, which helps finance public schools.

"We're putting part of our gas in the pipeline to go to New York City to make sure the initial phase of this program works at a reasonable cost," Calhoun said. "This is the first phase of what we hope to be a massive conversion to use Texas natural gas in New York City." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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