It’s hybrid vehicles to the rescue for state and local governments

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published March 09, 2008

Like businesses and consumers, governments and school districts have been forced to take action to adjust to record-high gasoline prices.

North Thurston Public Schools will look at shortening or cutting some bus routes. The county has a fueling station where employees can save up to 60 cents a gallon on gasoline and is instituting an anti-idling policy. Many local governments are boosting their budgets. But even with those and other efforts, costs are skyrocketing.

Some state government agency leaders saw high fuel prices on the horizon a long time ago, and they got on board early with hybrid vehicles.

But even that isn’t helping some agencies stave off rising costs. A fuel cost of $4 per gallon likely would add $2.4 million in higher costs for the Washington State Patrol and $24 million for Washington State Ferries in budget year 2009 alone, according to the governor’s Office of Financial Management. The 21 ferries in service made 163,567 trips last year and consumed 17 million gallons of diesel fuel.

Agencies are fighting back in different ways — some by switching to hybrids, some by using less fuel when possible. “When we topped 3 bucks a year ago, we really tried to manage our fleet well and encourage people to carpool and not schedule so many meetings where they have to drive,” Department of Transportation spokesman Lloyd Brown said.

The state has been making progress since 2000, Kuper said. The Department of General Administration motor pool now is 35 percent hybrids, tops in the United States, agency spokesman Steve Valandra said.

“We’re buying about 90 percent hybrids now,” Valandra said of GA’s motor pool.

The motor pool includes 570 hybrids in its fleet of 1,600.

More state employees showing up to rent motor-pool cars are requesting hybrids, too, but the agency can’t keep up with demand, Valandra said.

GA is helping to contain fuel costs by helping agencies buy fuel and hybrid cars in bulk. The state and other governments participating in a bulk-fuel contract have avoided $2.5 million more in escalating fuel costs since April 13, 2006, Valandra said.