ATLANTA- The United States Department of Energy awarded a $14.9 million grant to DeKalb County in partnership with the Clean Cities Atlanta Coalition that will fund programming designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation vehicles.

The program will be implemented during the course of the next two years and includes efforts to increase the supply of renewable compressed natural gas (CNG) while growing the availability of CNG fueling stations, increasing the number of fleet and commercially operated vehicles operating on alternative fuels, and deploying a variety of advanced-technology hybrid vehicles.

Specific program objectives collectively include:

· Converting 1,000 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm) of LFG at the DeKalb County Landfill that is currently being flared to CNG. The long-term goal is to reduce annual criteria pollutant emissions from the facility as follows:

• 9.0 tons of NOx

• 49.2 tons of CO2

• 2.2 tons of Particulate Matter (PM)

• 1.1 tons of SO2

• 0.5 tons of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)

· Constructing four new CNG fueling stations and expanded dispensing capacity at one existing station

· Deployment of191 light to heavy duty alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles comprised of 122 CNG vehicles, 20 hydraulic hybrid vehicles and 49 hybrid electric vehicles.
· Significant reduction of petroleum use by more than 489,000 gallons per year.

· Creation of more than 185 new jobs and retention of nearly 300 additional jobs.

· Public education and promotion regarding alternative fuel technologies and vehicles driven by the coalition and individual partners which demonstrate the financial viability of the LFG - CNG business model as well as the economic and environmental effectiveness of CNG and hybrid vehicles in delivery, passenger, and municipal fleet operations.

The City of Atlanta is pursuing $535 million in stimulus funding across 34 different ARRA-funded programs. With this award, the City has received over $41 million in commitments to date.