For the next 10 months, Madison Gas & Electric will be paying for a costlier, cleaner-burning fuel aboard Madison Metro buses as part of a pollution abatement agreement that came with the construction of the West Campus Cogeneration Facility. MGE's payment for ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel will amount to $200,000 from now until June 2006, when new federal requirements will make the fuel mandatory, officials said Tuesday. Metro uses 1.3 million gallons of diesel annually, and ultra-low sulfur diesel, or ULSD, is expected to cost the city 27 cents more per gallon than traditional fuel. Therefore, once ULSD is mandatory, Metro's annual fuel costs are expected to rise by about $351,000. Metro marketing manager Julie Maryott-Walsh said the higher cost of burning ULSD has been figured into the $1.4 million budget gap that city leaders discussed as they wrestled with rate increases earlier this summer. Mayoral aide Jeanne Hoffman and Metro manager Catherine Debo praised the agreement with MGE as a way to clean bus exhaust. With no modifications, buses burning ULSD emit 8 percent less soot, 29 percent less carbon monoxide, 97 percent less sulfur dioxide and 76 percent less total hydrocarbon emissions. "ULSD will allow Metro to help keep the sky a little bluer and the air we breathe a little cleaner," Hoffman said. The fuel is being purchased from Hartney Oil, which provided the first shipment of ULSD to Madison on Aug. 22 and plans deliveries three to four times a week. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.