Forty-eight of New York City's 61 NY State Assembly Members sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today, calling on him to make, "elimination of diesel buses a top priority for the MTA as considerations of the 2000-2004 Capital Plan progresses." The MTA's proposed capital plan uses 80% of its bus money to buy 756 new diesel buses, build two new diesel bus depots and expand existing diesel depots.

Speaker Silver in fact identified MTA diesel bus purchase plans as a "major concern" of his during an Assembly hearing on the MTA capital program proposal in November (MTR #244).

Still, the letter demonstrates how widespread concern over diesel particulate pollution has become in New York City. It will add pressure to efforts to persuade the MTA to revise its bus purchase plans.

At a press conference this morning, Assembly Members Scott Stringer, Deborah Glick and Pete Grannis linked the MTA's bus plan to poor air quality in New York City. They highlighted the EPA's threat reported Thursday to revoke transportation funds if air pollution in the metropolitan region is not reduced, and called diesel exhaust the "#1 air pollution problem in NYC."