Oregon’s TriMet shifting to renewable diesel for diesel fixed-route buses

In Oregon, on Oct. 27, 2021, TriMet’s Board of Directors unanimously supported TriMet’s latest step to reduce our carbon footprint—shifting to renewable diesel to power its diesel fixed-route buses. As Oregon’s largest consumer of diesel, TriMet will lead the state’s transportation industry toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the move to renewable diesel that has less toxic impact on our air.

TriMet’s change to renewable diesel will happen as soon as supplies on the West Coast allow, which could come as early as December. Coupled with TriMet’s switch to 100% renewable electricity in June 2021, running buses on renewable diesel will cut the carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions produced by our agency by more than 57% within a year’s time. With that, we expect to avoid more than 149 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions a year (more than 53 million pounds due to renewable electricity and nearly 96 million pounds due to renewable diesel). That’s the equivalent of taking 14,693 cars off the road.

The move to renewable diesel is an important one while TriMet transitions to a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2040.