Although details of the agency's plan to replace over half of their 2,900 buses will not be spelled out until a board of directors meeting later this month, Transit representatives told the Campaign it is likely that none of the new buses will be fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG). The preliminary breakdown for the new bus order includes 650 diesels for local bus routes and 1,300 diesel "cruisers" to serve long-distance routes. The new buses are so-called "clean diesels," but are still a far cry from natural gas in pollution terms. In 1995, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that "clean diesel" buses emitted ten times the particulate matter than natural gas buses it studied.

Even the 50 CNG cruisers NJ has planned to introduce for several years still aren't on the road. NJ Transit expects to have them running later this year on long-distance routes served from the Howell depot in suburban Monmouth County. This initiative has been criticized for doing little to help urban areas that suffer more heavily from particulate pollution and respiratory illness.

NJ Transit, owner of the nation's second largest bus fleet, has offered steadfast resistance to calls to switch its diesel bus fleet to cleaner fuels, citing the cost of retrofitting diesel bus depots for CNG fueling and several operating issues, including the low quality of CNG fuel apparently offered by Public Service Gas & Electric, the big north Jersey utility. However, the latter problem was identified at least nine years ago and has apparently been solved in the case of the Howell depot.

State representatives from Bergen and Hudson Counties have tried to force the issue with legislation that would require NJ Transit to purchase alternative fuel vehicles for any new bus purchases, but to little avail.

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that many transit operators are moving aggressively to replace diesels with CNG buses, and that some are experiencing lower and fuel costs for the CNG's than for their diesel fleets.