By
saving fuel, cities and towns save 'green' while being green
By Matt Lail
With the price of gasoline creeping closer to (or in some case over) $3 per gallon across the state, cities and towns are trying to be creative with the way they reduce the amount of fuel they use.
Sanford , for instance, has begun using regular gas in its vehicles instead of mid-grade.
“This allowed a cost savings of approximately 10 cents on the gallon,” said Randy Paschal, Sanford 's garage superintendent.
The city also has begun using lower viscosity oil in the vehicles that will allow. Also, the Sanford garage has been making sure all vehicles are well-tuned, and that tire pressure is at the proper amount.
And when picking up parts or supplies out of town, “all [city] departments check with each other to see if there are other products that need to be picked up at the same time,” said Paschal.
And it's not just that these municipalities are being money-conscious. Saving energy of all types seems to be on everybody's minds these days; local governments are no different.
Some municipalities, like Cornelius, have purchased electric vehicles. Wilmington recently purchased its first hybrid, a 2008 Toyota Prius. Soon to follow will be six hybrid Toyota Camrys and two hybrid Ford Escapes, all for general purpose use. Marshville also recently got into the hybrid game, buying a Honda Civic, funded in part by a grant from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The town also has purchased two Dodge Charger police vehicles, “breaking our long tradition of Ford Crown Victorias,” says Carl Webb, Marshville's town administrator. This move was done “partly in an effort to explore the fuel savings potential with the Chargers.”
“With the air quality issues in the Charlotte region, our council identified early on that we needed to do our part on regional environmental concerns,” said Concord City Manager Brian Hiatt . “Like everyone else, the recent spike in fuel prices is causing grave concern. We provide many services that are delivered almost to the front door, so we have to be persistent and innovative in our efforts.”
Concord has been aggressive in its fuel-saving techniques. The city first began focusing on fuel economy in its vehicles in 2002.
“The emphasis came about as a marriage of responses to both environmental and financial concerns,” said Hiatt. “We started introducing hybrids where appropriate and adopted an anti-idling policy in addition to our summer time ozone program. That is where some of our efforts started.
“Then, after Hurricane Katrina and the roller coaster of gas prices, we started to add to that focus serious efforts to save fuel for financial reasons.”
The N.C. Benchmarking Program illustrates Concord 's success, according to Daniel Nuckolls, the city's garage superintendent.
“Of the two classes of vehicles [Car-Normal Use and Light Vehicles, and Medium and Heavy Duty Truck, see charts] measured, Concord had the highest fuel economy of the 17 cities participating,” said Nuckolls. “... Though I haven't checked every category, I would not be afraid to say that Concord has the most fuel-efficient fleet in the program, perhaps in the state.”
When it comes to Normal Use and Light Vehicles, Concord has stressed hybrids and small pickup trucks.
“When a full-size pickup is needed, we equip it with the smallest V-8 engine, and if the truck is over three-quarters of a ton, we order it with a diesel engine,” said Nuckolls.
As for Medium and Heavy Duty Trucks, Concord typically purchases larger trucks with the most fuel-efficient diesel engine. For instance, the Mercedes-Benz 900 series engines idle at a lower speed and averages 3 mpg better fuel economy than other engines.
“We also keep the horsepower rating low and couple this with a transmission that provides power at low speeds but still allows the same desired highway speed.”
Police cars were not charted in the process, though Nuckolls believes his fleet of police vehicles has among the highest (if not the highest) fuel economy among police cars statewide (13.64 miles per gallon).
“The added economy in our police cars alone means we used 31,672 gallons less fuel than the average. This equates to about an $85,000 savings per year (at current prices).”
Concord
, along with Sanford and Black Mountain , among others, has adopted idling
policies. The purpose of Concord 's idling policy is to eliminate “all unnecessary
idling of City-owned vehicles and equipment to reduce the harmful emissions
that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone; and, reduce overall
fuel 
consumption.”
It goes on to state that city vehicles must be turned off when loading or
unloading, when unattended, when parked or, in general, “once a vehicle becomes
stationary (longer than 2 minutes), the engine is to be turned-off” unless
there is an exemption, such as idling in traffic, to cool interior for K-9
units, in extreme cold weather operations, and others. All city employees
who may drive a city-owned vehicle receive a copy of Concord 's idling policy,
and violations are subject to disciplinary action.
Of course, a menu of vehicle options, idling policies and regular maintenance are but a small part of cities' efforts at being more green. It takes a buy-in from the entire organization.
“Last year at our annual planning session, the council went further and adopted an overall environmental focus for the organization in a number of areas including energy savings, air quality, water quality and quantity, solid waste, etc.,” said Hiatt. “I believe this reflects the environmental concerns we are hearing in our community.
“Environmental issues know no boundaries and we can only tackle them on regional levels through cooperation.”
This article originally appeared in the December 2007 issue of Southern City.
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More energy Savings in the News
-Don't flush those toilets, council woman says, Raleigh News & Observer, December 17, 2007
-Port City adds hybrids, Wilmington Star-News, November 28, 2007
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