Oct. 14--In a sharp turnabout from a year ago, DART has endorsed a staff proposal to buy nearly 600 buses powered by compressed natural gas, not diesel.

A near-unanimous vote Tuesday by the operations committee -- one member abstained -- moves the controversial proposal to the full board, which will vote to solicit bids for 594 new buses in two weeks.

Late last year, the staff proposed that the board buy diesel-powered buses, arguing that new diesel standards make those engines burn just as cleanly as their natural gas-powered counterparts -- and at much less cost.

That proposal was withdrawn in January, however, after heavy lobbying by Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, who insisted that the bid by a company founded by Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens made more sense, even if the natural gas buses cost millions more.

Leppert said compressed natural gas engines would help give Dallas a cleaner, "greener," image -- and ought to be given another look. DART board members, including nearly all the Dallas appointees, asked for more time, putting the proposal on the shelf for the past nine months.

Staff members returned Tuesday with an entirely new analysis -- and an opposite recommendation. Victor Burke, executive vice president of operations, told board members that the natural gas-powered buses would cost an additional $142 million in upfront costs and added interest expense but that DART would save much more in lower fuel costs over the next 20 years.

Burke told members of the operations committee that the agency could save about $190 million over 20 years, thanks to fuel savings. In the past nine months, he said, diesel prices have gone up and natural gas prices have fallen.

That savings is more than enough to offset the higher costs of buying natural gas buses, he said.

DART board members, especially those from Dallas, reacted enthusiastically, even ecstatically, to the news.

Immediately after Burke's presentation, board member Jerry Christian of Dallas grabbed the floor to declare his support. "I don't have any questions because this appears to me to be a no-brainer," he said. He said he wanted to be on record as the first to support the plan.

Other board members asked a lot of questions. But they all expressed relief that the staff's new analysis showed a substantial savings associated with buying the gas-powered buses. Those savings are entirely based on projections that show diesel prices will be much higher than the prices DART expects to be able to lock in for natural gas.