With electric vehicles for mass transit, LA can step into the forefront

Los Angeles is leading the nation on green transit, with its Metropolitan Transit Authority recently becoming the nation's only major transit agency whose entire bus fleet is equipped with alternative fuel technologies.

As proud as we should be of this accomplishment, however, L.A. continues to "miss the bus" when it comes to leveraging its investments to make the city a national center for green manufacturing jobs.

Here's where the rubber meets the road: Today, not a single MTA bus is manufactured in L.A. Instead, our fleet is built across the country in states like Alabama and Minnesota. That means our taxes and fare dollars go to pay the salaries of workers in those states rather than to workers here at home. With the region suffering 13 percent unemployment, this is an equation we must change.

Here's the opportunity: Over the next several years, local agencies around the country will begin preparations for another major shift - this time updating to all-electric buses. If L.A. plants its leadership stake early, we will be able to capitalize significantly on that investment.

Recently, I attended the World Electric Vehicle Symposium in Shenzhen, China. What I learned there surprised me. I found that the world's transportation leaders are far more excited about the potential of electric buses than electric cars.

This is because, increasingly, officials in Europe and Asia are realizing that shifting municipal support to manufacturing buses is a more efficient strategy to check air pollution, address traffic and create local jobs that pay well.

The environmental benefits of electric over compressed natural gas (CNG) are substantial. Here in L.A., converting our fleet of more than 2,000 CNG buses to electric would reduce carbon emissions by well over 400,000 metric tons - roughly the equivalent of taking 83,000 cars off the road.

So what should we take from this on a policy level?

Thanks to the Federal Transit Administration's "Buy America" requirements, 60 percent of the value of each bus on our streets must be created in the U.S. So by law, manufacturing of the next generation won't be outsourced to a factory across the globe - it will happen domestically. The only question is where.

Currently, there are very few electric bus manufacturing plants in the United States, mainly because at the moment there isn't sufficient demand. However, global trends tell us that will soon change.

If we act, Los Angeles has a clear opportunity to capture this market. This will require making a commitment to electric buses and leveraging that commitment to ensure that those buses are manufactured here. We aren't competing against China or Europe - we are competing against fellow American cities and states that have previously beaten L.A. to the punch in terms of leveraging the economic benefits of public transit dollars.

At the meeting of the MTA Board of Directors this week, we will propose a new pilot program, in which the agency would order up to 30 electric buses for trial circulation. This pilot will allow us to see if the technology works and equally importantly find out, as some studies seem to show, that electric buses might be cheaper to operate over their life cycle than combustion buses.

Cheaper costs of operations mean lower fares for our riders. Should the board approve the proposal and the pilot prove successful, Los Angeles will position itself to negotiate a large-scale manufacturing contract and bring the nation's first major electric bus plant to the L.A. area. That contract alone could mean thousands of jobs in the green economy for area residents.

Five years down the line, cities across the country will be making the transition to electric buses as a matter of sound public policy. At that point, we can either be the country's manufacturing center for electric mass transit or we can find ourselves still ordering from plants in Alabama and Minnesota.

On the last day of the Electric Vehicle Symposium, leaders from Copenhagen were given an award for their commitment to next generation mass transit, exemplified by the city's commitment to a fleet of electric buses. Inspired by the scene, I expressed my belief that Los Angeles is ready to expand the Copenhagen model to a significantly larger scale. Almost immediately, I was swarmed by manufacturers eager to talk about developing L.A.'s next fleet. These companies want to work with us, and they want to be here generating employment opportunities.

This is a chance for Los Angeles to step to the environmental forefront, create jobs for Angelenos and make public transportation affordable. Let's make sure this is one bus we don't miss.