The Capital District Transportation Authority, which serves the greater Albany metropolitan area, will receive $3.5 million in federal funds to help convert its bus fleet to run cleaner and cheaper.

The CDTA has ordered 40 new buses that are diesel-electric hybrids or run on clean-fuel diesel, the Times Union reported. A typical transit bus covers about 35,000 to 40,000 miles a year and gets about 3.8 miles per gallon. A typical hybrid gets about 4.8 miles per gallon on Capital Region routes.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement that CDTA "is showing how investing in green transportation not only helps the  planet and strengthens our economy, but also creates jobs."  

The grant is part of the $100 million of stimulus spending available under the "Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction" program. Other projects awarded grants in this competitive program included wind energy generation turbines for a transit system in Massachusetts and solar panels for transit facilities in Vancouver, Wash.