Mineta San José Airport Recognized for
Successful Clean Air Vehicle Results
Conversion of shuttle fleet, public fueling station
cited for environmental benefits

San José, CA – Mineta San José International Airport has been selected to receive the National Natural Gas Vehicle Achievement Award in recognition of its successful efforts that have significantly improved air quality and reduced fuel costs of its ground transportation operations.

Since 2003, the Airport has been able to eliminate the use of more 1.1 million gallons of diesel fuel through its conversion of its shuttle bus fleet to compressed natural gas (CNG). This has resulted in a fuel cost savings of over $2.6 million dollars since 2003, as well as reducing vehicle exhaust emissions by over 70 tons annually.

“This award recognizes the outstanding contributions made by San José’s airport to the advancement of natural gas as a vehicular fuel,” said Richard Kolodziej, president of NGVAmerica, a national trade association that promotes alternative-fuel vehicles. “San José has achieved measurable results that have advanced community and industry goals of improving air quality and reducing dependence on oil.”

“Our airport’s commitment to environmental leadership is a model for the nation,” said San José Mayor Chuck Reed. “In addition to our good work to protect air quality, we have achieved significant progress to save energy, control noise for the benefit of our neighbors, and make sure our new airport under construction will meet high standards for green buildings.”

SJC opened its state-of-the-art compressed natural gas station in August 2003, which is also open for use by the general public. The fueling station cost $3,300,000, for which the Airport received grants totaling $750,000 from the California Energy Commission and the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to help build it.

San José is the only airport in California that owns its own CNG fueling station, which benefits both its ground transportation operations and the public because SJC can take greater advantage of incentives, grants and programs that allow it to pass cost savings on to taxis, other fleets, and privately-owned vehicles. For example, SJC now can receive up to $200,000 annually from federal excise tax credits as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

In 2002, the Airport received $700,000 from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to replace twenty diesel shuttle buses with CNG-fueled shuttles. The Airport will complete the conversion of its entire shuttle bus fleet to CNG in 2008 by replacing another fourteen shuttle buses with CNG vehicles with the help of another BAAQMD grant of $700,000.
In addition, the Airport has encouraged the conversion of taxis to CNG by permitting CNG taxis to operate every day at the airport instead of alternate days that gasoline-fueled taxis are allowed. As a result, the number of CNG taxis working at SJC has increased from fewer than 30 in mid-2005 to 119 vehicles today, and they now account for more than 40 percent of all taxi trips from the Airport compared to six percent in 2005.

This fall SJC will launch its Alternative Fuel Grant Program to support the CNG conversion of more vehicles working at the Airport. The program will provide conversion grants of $4000 per taxi and $8000 for a door-to-door shuttle permitted to operate at the Airport, using $154,000 from Airport funds, federal excise tax credits, and a VTA clean air grant.
SJC’s partners for its successful alternative fuel program include Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Silicon Valley Clean Cities Coalition, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, California Energy Commission, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, NGVAmerica, and Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute.

San Jose’s clean fuel program was nominated for the NGV award by PG&E. The award will be presented to SJC at the National NGV Conference on October 15 in Reno.
"We congratulate San José’s airport on the tremendous environmental benefits it has realized by transitioning to one of the cleanest burning alternative transportation fuels available today," said Jill Egbert, PG&E clean air transportation manager.

"We look forward to continuing our decade-long partnership with SJC as we both work to improve air quality in the communities we serve."

The National NGV Achievement Award is sponsored the Clean Vehicle Education Foundation and the NGVAmerica. Each year, an independent committee of NGV industry suppliers and clean air/clean transportation advocates judges dozens nominations.

About Mineta San José International Airport
Mineta San José International Airport, a self-supporting enterprise, is owned and operated by the City of San José. SJC served 10.8 million passengers and handled approximately 209 million pounds of air cargo in 2006. SJC has 189 flights a day on 13 domestic and international carriers to 30 nonstop destinations.

The Airport generates more than $100 million in operating revenue annually. Mineta San José International Airport also generates $4 billion in direct business spending in the local community and 70,000 jobs in the San José Area.

Mineta San José International Airport is located in San José, California’s third largest city and the nation’s tenth largest city (population of 974,000).

For more Airport information, visit www.sjc.org, or call Airport Customer Service at (408) 501-0979. Motorists can also tune their radios to 530 AM within two miles of SJC for current information on airport traffic, parking and security.

-SJC-

1732 N. First Street, Suite 600, San José, CA 95112-4538 24 Hour Media Line: 408.501.7700