August 17, 2023. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has added eight compressed natural gas (CNG) aerial boom trucks to its fleet, which will be used for tree trimming operations, officials announced Monday, Aug. 14.
The purchase was made possible by a $240,000 state grant from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee. LADWP applied for the grant under MSRC’s program to buy medium and heavy-duty alternative fuel vehicles.
Qualifying heavy-duty alternative fuel vehicles were eligible to receive a maximum MSRC contribution of $30,000 each. The eight new CNG vehicles were ordered in September 2020. All eight had been delivered and placed into service as of May 31.
“The MSRC grant will help increase our clean fuel fleet,” Katherine Rubin, director of environmental affairs for LADWP, said in a statement, “while also helping us decrease our (carbon dioxide) emissions and reduce transportation-related pollution, which is one of the largest contributors to L.A.’s still too smoggy skies.”
Replacing LADWP’s older diesel-powered aerial boom trucks with alternative-fuel vehicles will help significantly reduce air emissions. LADWP operates nearly 600 electric and hybrid vehicles out of its 8,600 on-road fleet, which includes 4,200 heavy-duty vehicles.
That translates to about 4.29 million pounds of CO2 emissions avoided annually.