Garbage truck fleet turns to natural gas

By Michael Cronk

Mercury News July 31, 2002

Refuse collection and recycling in Sunnyvale is being taken over by trucks fueled by compressed natural gas, a clean-burning fuel that's expected to lower emissions compared with the previous diesel-powered vehicles by three to four tons a year.

A fleet of 20 natural gas trucks was delivered recently to Specialty Solid Waste & Recycling, which collects garbage, yard trimmings and recyclable materials under a long-term contact with the city of Sunnyvale. The company now has 24, making its fleet of natural-gas-powered trucks the largest of any refuse company in Northern California.

Also, a new publicly accessible natural gas fueling station has been set up at the company's site at 3355 Thomas Road in Santa Clara.

Vehicles from nearby Mineta San Jose International Airport, school buses, and privately owned vehicles are using the fueling station, said Jerry Nabhan, Specialty's operations officer.

This is a very significant project in helping us to improve our air quality by replacing diesel trucks with clean air fuels such as natural gas,'' Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler said.

Conversion of these vehicles is consistent with our shift to alternative fuels in the city's own fleet vehicles in recent years.''

Julia Miller, vice mayor and member of the board of directors of the air district, was instrumental in securing grant money for Sunnyvale. The Fund for Clean Air is made available to government agencies that purchase vehicles for their own use, and for private vehicles that are used for

public purposes'' -- a category that includes solid waste and recycling collection contracted through a city.

Similar projects aimed at reducing the emission of pollutants throughout the region are under way in other Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, Napa, Richmond and Santa Rosa, said William C. Norton, executive officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Currently, 14 percent of Sunnyvale's vehicle fleet, including a street sweeper, has converted to alternative power sources such as natural gas and electricity.

Nabhan said all but two of the trucks used for residential pickup in Sunnyvale are powered by natural gas.

Six of the 10 trucks handling commercial pickup are fueled by natural gas, Nabhan said.

Contact Michael Cronk at mcronk@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5063

TRANSPORTATION

Is Palo Alto big enough for two car-sharing enterprises? City CarShare thinks so.

The San Francisco-based nonprofit is taking on the for-profit Flexcar for the hearts and minds of Palo Alto commuters. The nationally based Flexcar last month purchased CarLink II, a pilot car-share program that maintained a fleet of cars at the California Avenue Caltrain station.

Both companies encourage drivers to take turns using cars from a shared fleet of vehicles going to and coming home from work. Both are also optimistic of their chances for success.

"We don't see City CarShare as competition, but as an affirmation that there's something (worth pursuing) here," said Neil Peterson, CEO of Flexcar. He views car sharing as an idea whose time has come.

"Demographics show that people are moving away from ownership, toward access," he said. "Most people don't own a truck, car and van, but with car sharing, they can have access to any vehicle for the hour or two that they need it," he said.

Amanda Jones, Palo Alto's transportation management coordinator, said the city is thrilled to be the locus for car-sharing expansion in the Bay Area. Jones said the city plans to treat each organization fairly and equitably, becoming a member of both enterprises and allowing employees to choose which cars they wish to use.

City Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto said car sharing could play a key role in reducing traffic congestion, pollution and parking problems. "The parking issue is the driving force in land-use issues," she said.

Kishimoto applied for membership with City CarShare. "We are a one-car family already. In a few weeks, our older daughter will be getting her driver's license," she said. Now that there will be a third driver in the family, Kishimoto plans to use car sharing in lieu of getting a second car.

Despite such enthusiasm, many factors must be addressed for the nascent industry to be profitable, said Dr. Susan Shaheen of the Institute for Transportation Studies-Davis, the organization that designed the CarLink II program.

She is especially worried about the dramatic rise in insurance rates since Sept. 11. Each car put on the road by a car-sharing company will cost $4,000-$5,000 to insure. Shaheen's survey found that by June 2002, increased insurance costs were "a major obstacle to the expansion and sustainability for the vast majority of North American organizations."

"I'm not worried about the higher rates. Eventually high rates will be faced by individuals as well," said Ric Hjertberg, the South Bay organizer for City CarShare and a member of Menlo Park's board of transportation.

Although he conceded that insurance rates have tripled in the last year for City CarShare, Hjertberg maintained prices could be kept down in a variety of ways. He said 40 percent of the customers go a month between using the services, lowering the probability of accidents.

Both Peterson and Hjertberg maintain that suburban Palo Alto has the necessary population to make car sharing profitable. Others, however, aren't so sure.

Nancy Rosenzweig, vice president of marketing for Boston's Zipcar -- another ride-sharing organization -- said the population density of a community must be at least 10,000 people per square mile for the enterprise to be profitable. "I would seriously question the claims of anyone who says they have success with less," she said.

Palo Alto's population is approximately 61,000, spread over a 26-square mile area, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). One third of those 26 miles is open space. Considering the actual inhabited area is 18 square miles, the population density would be 3,388 people per square mile -- far below Rosenzweig's figures for profitability.

Density figures bump up to 6,951.6 per square mile when Palo Alto's itinerant population of workers swells during the week. The population then increases to 139,032, inclusive of Stanford, said Allice Rodelli, of the City Manager's Office of Economic Resources and Planning.

By comparison, with a population of more than 700,000 and area of 47 square miles, San Francisco's population density is nearly 15,000 per square mile -- a perfect fit for Rosenzweig's model for profitability.

Peterson of Flexcar waved off such notions.

"It would be a mistake to say that car sharing can only work in urban areas. Flexcar has already been serving suburban cities like Kirkland and Bellevue, Washington," said Peterson.

Zipcar's Rosenzweig also pointed out that business can be enhanced through other methods.

"Government can help increase the desire to car-share by giving incentives such as tax breaks to businesses and car-share members, and privileges such as using the carpooling lane," she said.

At any rate, the competition is heating up. Both organizations feel they have what it takes to succeed in this area.

"The two have different initiatives: the Flexcar model is a transit initiative, and City CarShare has a social mission -- to empower people who can't afford cars," Hjertberg said.

Zipcar's Rosenzweig hopes that any rivalry between the companies will not overshadow their common goals.

"At the heart of every one of these companies is a conviction. . . . the passion is the same. The goal is how collectively we can make a change," she said.

E-mail Sue Dremann at sdremann@paweekly.com
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Toyota Ups Fuel Efficiency of Redesigned Prius

New Prius rated at 73 miles per gallon or 31 km/liter.

Source: Reuters [Aug 09, 2002]

TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japan's largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, said on Tuesday it had improved its hybrid gasoline-electric Prius sedan to make it the most fuel-efficient five-seat passenger car on the domestic market.

Under Japanese government fuel economy tests, the new Prius does 31 km per litre, or 73 miles per gallon, outstripping rival Honda Motor Co's <7267.T> Civic hybrid at 29.5 km per litre.

The previous Prius obtained 29 km per litre.

Toyota and Honda are the world's only automakers to sell hybrid vehicles which combine an internal combustion engine with an electric motor to make them twice as fuel efficient as ordinary cars of the same size.

Honda's aerodynamic Insight two-seater, designed specifically for maximum fuel efficiency rather than practicality, remains the leading vehicle in fuel economy race, getting 35 km per litre.

U.S. fuel efficiency standards are, however, quite different from Japanese standards. Under U.S. standards, the previous Prius gets 48 miles per gallon, or 20 km per litre..

The minor model change for the Prius announced on Tuesday is only aimed at the domestic market but company executives have also said they are planning a new version of the car for the U.S. market.

Launched in 1997, the Prius was the world's first hybrid car.

Copyright 2002, Reuters News Service

Source: Reuters [Aug 09, 2002]

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Aug 8 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co.'s F.N goal of increasing the fuel efficiency of its sport utility vehicles by 25 percent in five years has become tougher because some new fuel-saving techniques have failed to live up to expectations, Ford's environmental chief said on Thursday.

"When you look at the different technologies we thought we could employ, as you get further down the development stream you might find they don't give you the fuel economy improvement you thought," Sue Cischke, Ford's vice president of environmental and safety engineering, told Reuters.

Cischke said that while Ford was still committed to meeting its goal by 2005, "it's not a done deal by any chance, and it's not as easy as some people might think it is. But it is a commitment we made, and it is driving a lot of the actions we're taking in the company."

Ford captured the nation's attention in 2000 when it made the pledge to increase its SUV fuel economy, part of a strategy by Chairman Bill Ford Jr. to improve the automaker's environmental image. General Motors Corp. GM.N quickly followed by vowing to keep its SUVs more efficent than Ford's.

Ford's pledge covered all SUVs it builds --including models from Land Rover, Volvo and Mazda-- and would raise its average SUV fuel economy from about 16 miles (25 km) per gallon to about 20 miles (32 km) per gallon. As with federal fuel economy standards, Ford's target is not an average of all SUV models, but the average of all SUVs it actually sells.

"The model mix is always a challenge, because people are buying the vehicles they think they need," Cischke said.

Cischke spoke on the sidelines of the auto industry's annual Management Briefing Seminars in this resort in northern Michigan.

Late next year, Ford will begin building a version of its Ford Escape small SUV with a hybrid gasoline-electric powertrain, capable of achieving 40 miles (64 km) per gallon in city driving. Cischke and Bill Ford both said this week that Ford would build as many hybrid Escapes as the market would demand, unlike the limited production of hybrid models by Honda and Toyota on sale now.

But Cischske said a similar hybrid system that had been planned for the larger Ford Explorer in 2004 had been cancelled because it failed to meet the goal of improving efficiency by eight to 10 percent.

"When we got to implementing it during the development process, we realized we were not going to get anywhere near that in terms of fuel economy improvement," Cischke said. "So it didn't make sense to put it in the vehicle."

LIMITED PROGRESS

Ford's progress to date has been mixed. Last year's redesign of the Explorer increased fuel economy only on some versions, while the redesigned Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator use less fuel on some models and more gasoline-per-mile on others.

The job has also been made more difficult by Ford's cost-cutting campaign, aimed at generating $7 billion in annual pretax profits by mid-decade.

"It's very challenging, and especially with these economic times it makes it even tougher," Cischke said.

Ford did side with other automakers earlier this year in opposing increases in federal fuel economy standards, and also opposed a California law allowing state officials to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, essentially by setting new efficiency standards.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has said it will challenge the law in court, arguing California cannot supercede federal standards with its own rules. But Cischke said such a move may be premature, echoing comments from Bill Ford on Wednesday when he said he wanted to "lower the temperature" of the debate.

"The industry in general hasn't figured out what they're going to do about CO2, and at the end of the day, they might end up saying the only way we can make sense of this is to take it to court," she said. "I don't think we're there yet...they (California officials) are just as confused as we are about what it means."

Cischke noted that Ford had not joined a lawsuit filed by GM and DaimlerChrysler AG's DCX.N DCXGn.DE Chrysler arm against California for mandating sales of electric vehicles. And she said Ford prefers that the industry works with regulators to set voluntary targets, just as Europe does.

The SUV fuel economy pledge "shows a direction, and what we're trying to do in the company, and that we're making tough product choices to get there."
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Feds Not Meeting Alternative Fuel Vehicle Acquisition Requirements

Federal District Court Judge William Alsup has found that nearly every cabinet level agency in the U.S. Government has violated the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

Source: AScribe Newswire [Aug 08, 2002]

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7 -- In ruling on a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup has found that nearly every cabinet level agency in the U.S. Government has violated the Energy Policy Act of 1992 by failing to buy or lease the legally required percentages of Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) for their federal fleets. The lawsuit was brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Bluewater Network, and Sierra Club.

The Energy Policy Act, signed into law after the Gulf War by George Bush I in 1992, was designed to wean 10 percent of American transportation fuel demand from petroleum by the year 2000 and 30 percent by the 2010. The Act requires all federal agencies with light duty fleet vehicles in major metropolitan areas to acquire at least 75 percent Alternative Fuel Vehicles each year instead of traditional petroleum-fueled cars and trucks. The federal government currently has over 600,000 vehicles in its fleet, the largest in the nation. Judge Alsup declared that all defendant federal agencies violated the Act's AFV-acquisition requirements in at least some years

Judge Alsup also found that all the defendant federal agencies have further violated the Energy Policy Act by failing to disclose to the public through annual compliance reports whether they had acquired the legally required numbers of AFVs. Agencies covered by this ruling include: Departments of Commerce, Defense, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture, Justice, Labor, and State, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, General Services Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA.

"This is a major victory for anyone who believes this nation's transportation system is dangerously addicted to petroleum including, it seems, President Bush's father. Hopefully the federal government will finally get with the program," said Jay Tutchton, staff attorney with Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that represented the plaintiffs in the suit.

Judge Alsup ordered the government to prepare overdue reports of their non-compliance with the law by November 26, 2002, and to make these reports available to the public over the Internet by January 31, 2003.

In these compliance reports, which defendants illegally withheld, every federal agency must not only admit its prior failings to acquire the legally required number of AFVs, but also must submit a specific plan, including dates, by which it will come into compliance with the law.

"These compliance plans and reports will finally set enforceable deadlines," said Tutchton. "Maybe now Bush II can enforce his father's law."

The Energy Policy Act also requires the Department of Energy to consider a regulation to extend the AFV acquisition requirements to private and municipal fleets in major metropolitan areas, which it has failed to do. Judge Alsup ordered both sides to provide further briefing on how long the court should give the Department of Energy to take action on the overdue regulation.

"AFVs are available on the market. The federal government has no excuse for not following the law. Hopefully by exposing the failings of the government we can re-direct the current national energy plan away from a drill-and-despoil mantra and toward cleaner future," said Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Environmentalists concerned about air pollution have long touted alternative fuel vehicles. "AFVs are cleaner than traditional vehicles. Burning alternative fuels as opposed to gasoline will lessen the toxic chemicals currently spewing from our tailpipes, and significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution--the main culprit behind global warming," said Elisa Lynch of Bluewater Network.

"The U.S. buys more than a half-million barrels of oil a day from Iraq," said Daniel Becker, director of Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy program. "Instead we should be using alternative fuels and increasing the fuel economy of our cars, trucks and SUVs. It's crucial that the Administration stop breaking this law because it moves us closer to reducing our dependence on oil."
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EV Rental Car Adds Honda Civic Hybrid-Electric

Company acquires 20 hybrid-electric Civics to add to its growing nationwide clean vehicle airport rental fleet.

Source: PR Newswire [Aug 07, 2002]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- EV Rental Cars, the only car rental company in the United States to offer environmentally friendly vehicles, now boasts a fleet of new Honda Civic hybrid-electric vehicles at Budget Rent a Car's Reagan National Airport rental location in the nation's capital. It is the first car rental company in the nation to have a fleet of hybrid Civics.

"For the business traveler concerned about fuel economy, energy security, and perhaps the condition of the environment, we believe there is a way to travel that is both economical and environmentally responsible," says Jeff Pink, chief executive officer of EV Rental Cars.

The acquisition of 20 hybrid-electric Civics, the world's first mass market hybrid, is the latest move by EV Rental Cars to use the airport rental market as a way to introduce environmentally friendly and fuel efficient vehicles to business travelers.

Pink points to Warner Bros. studios as an example of an environmentally aware company that is concerned about what its employees drive when traveling on company business. "We do quite a bit of business with Warner Bros., a company that has shown you can be big, have a social conscience, and be concerned about the bottom line at the same time," Pink says.

"Making the highly-efficient hybrid-electric Honda Civic available to our customers is the patriotic thing to do," Pink says. "Offering the Civic hybrid will provide an opportunity for American business and vacation travelers to directly reduce our nation's dependence on imported oil."

The Honda Civic Hybrid is one of three hybrid-electric models available for rent from EV Rental Cars, joining the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius. Also available at EV Rental Cars' Washington, D.C., location is the natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX. EV Rental Cars is adding 70 additional hybrid-electric vehicles to its Southern California fleet at Los Angeles International Airport later this summer.

"We are very proud to continue our partnership with Honda, and are honored that our company can now provide Honda's newest fuel-efficient vehicle in the nation's capital at a time when lawmakers are devising new energy initiatives," Pink says.

The all-new 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid -- the first mainstream vehicle sold in North America equipped with a gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain -- has earned EPA city/highway fuel economy ratings of 46/51 mpg. That's 650 miles per tank.

The 2003 Civic Hybrid uses Honda's innovative Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) technology, employing a 4-cylinder gasoline engine coupled with a high output electric motor to provide excellent performance and fuel efficiency. The system's compact nickel-metal-hydride battery module is automatically recharged during braking and deceleration. As a result, the Civic Hybrid never needs to be plugged in.

"Introducing the Civic Hybrid to Washington, D.C., with EV Rental Cars is part of Honda's continued commitment to the environment," says Stephen Ellis, Advanced Technology Vehicles Manager for American Honda.

"Every Civic coupe and sedan, including the hybrid, qualifies as an Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (ULEV). Offering the vehicles for rent is a great way to encourage consumers to try the cars in everyday driving conditions," Ellis says.

EV Rental Cars founded its rental program in December 1998 with 11 electric cars -- primarily GM's EV1, Honda's EV Plus, and Toyota's RAV4 EV -- at Los Angeles International Airport. Since then, the fleet has grown to some 400 environmental cars at 14 airport locations around the country, including San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Pittsburgh, Pa.

EV Rental Cars operates exclusively at Budget Rent a Car locations. This joint effort has eliminated more than 40 tons of smog-forming air pollutants by renting to more than 70,000 consumers, who in turn have accumulated more than 8.5 million miles on the fleet. Greenhouse gas emissions (C02) are also significantly reduced by hybrid and natural gas vehicles. In the process of renting these advanced technology vehicles, more than 220,000 gallons of gasoline have been displaced that would have been consumed by conventional rental vehicles.

For information on rental rates and locations, please visit www.evrental.com or call 1.877.EV.RENTAL for reservations.

EV Rental Cars coming off lease are available for sale through the AFV Market.
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FOR RELEASE: August 14, 2002