The fourth meeting of auto-fleet managers in the Four Corners today is scheduled to hammer on familiar themes – the favorable economic return from investing in alternative fuels and, particularly, who’s going to make the first move to make compressed natural gas a natural in the region.
Participants also are scheduled to discuss why alternative-fuel vehicles are not being used more widely given the infrastructure in place to support electric- and propane-fueled vehicles, said Gregg Dubit, executive director of the Four Corners Office for Energy Efficiency, usually abbreviated as 4CORE.
Durango has three two-plug charging stations at the transit center on east Eighth Street to charge electric cars.
“We’ve had 40 charge-ups since the stations became available in July,” said Mary Beth Miles, the city sustainability coordinator. “We buy 100 percent green power, so the 40 chargings saved 433 kilos of greenhouse-gas emissions.”
4CORE coordinates the fleet-manager meetings. Dubit and Sarah Rank, also of 4CORE, will make presentations.
A couple dozen people attend the meetings, among them representatives of city and county government, economic-development agencies and school districts.
Funding for the meetings comes from Refuel Colorado Fleets, a Department of Energy program that provides technical assistance in moving from conventional to alternative-fuel vehicles, and BP.
Introducing compressed natural gas, generally shortened to CNG, as a vehicle fuel is a tough one, Dubit said. It currently presents a no-exit situation, he said.
No one buys a CNG-powered vehicle without a ready source of fuel and, conversely, no one is going to invest in a CNG fueling station if there are no customers.
daler@durangoherald.com
if you go
Alternative Fuel Vehicle Working Group: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., today, La Plata County Road & Bridge Facility, 1365 South Camino del Rio.
