STATE FLEET'S GAS USE POORLY DETAILED BILL WOULD REQUIRE BETTER DATA COLLECTION.

Byline: KIMBERLY KINDY 

MediaNews Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- Two years ago, the California Legislature gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would have forced state officials to break down exactly how much "green" fuel and standard gasoline is being burned by its 6,000-plus alternative fuel fleet.

The idea was to determine what really happens with cars and trucks the state buys and touts as eco-friendly, and become the first step in dismantling a suspected practice: buying alternative fuel vehicles and declaring a green victory, only to turn around and quietly run the cars and trucks on fossil fuels.

The bill landed on Schwarzenegger's desk just months after he launched a flurry of green energy initiatives that have since gained him international acclaim.

"It was a common-sense bill," said Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, author of the proposed law, AB 1357. "We wanted to know what was actually fueling the state's alternative fuel vehicles. From there, we could have taken action, if it wasn't happening, to fix things."

But Schwarzenegger killed the bill. In his veto message, he wrote it was "unnecessary since it essentially duplicates existing state policy."

Schwarzenegger officials note that two reports -- one required by federal law and another by state law -- already document how much alternative fuel is being used by the fleet. Neither report, however, says whether gas is used, or in what quantities, which is what Ruskin's bill required.

Now, on the heels of a MediaNews investigation that revealed the state's newest green vehicles had not burned a single drop of alternative fuel during their two years in operation, lawmakers are again pressing for accountability.

On Monday, Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, will amend an alternative fuel bill he wrote, AB 236, so it will now ask Schwarzenegger to reconsider the data-collection measure.

Lieu will also ask for two additional pieces of information: a centralized list that shows the location of the state's alternative fuel vehicles and the corresponding location of alternative fuel stations.

"What they are doing right now, I call it cheating because they say the state has an alternative fuel fleet, but they don't," Lieu said. "It's a gasoline fleet."

A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the governor does not comment on bill amendments.

Regarding the bill veto, spokesman Aaron McLear said the Department of General Services -- which manages the state's fleet -- already collects data on nine out of 10 items Ruskin's bill called for. And the fuel consumption piece Lieu is seeking will soon be tracked by a new fleet management computer system, he said.

Contract requirements show the vendor must be able to create a computer system that maintains this data, along with vehicle location, in order to get the job. The department estimates it will be about two years before information on each state vehicle will be in the new system.

Lieu said he doesn't want to rely on assurances from General Services.

"It would be foolish for the Legislature to continue trusting them on this issue," Lieu said. "That is why we need to mandate the data tracking and to mandate that the report be publicly available."

Lieu also said if the computer system doesn't come on line next year, he believes General Services should add the new data to the two existing alternative fuel reports to clarify the currently fuzzy picture on fuel consumption with the fleet. For example, the reports show the alternative fuel fleet traveled more than 74 million miles last year and consumed 204,311 gallons of alternative fuel -- either compressed natural gas, propane or bio-diesel. But they don't say how much gas was used.

If, however, the vehicles got 22 miles per gallon, they would have burned a total of more than 3.36 million gallons of fuels, which would mean the cleaner-burning fuels account for just roughly 6 percent of overall consumption. Gasoline would make up the remaining 94 percent -- far from being an environmentally friendly fleet that meets the state's goal of "reducing dependence on fossil fuels."

In July, the MediaNews investigation showed that the worst record is with the alternative fuel vehicle purchases made by the Schwarzenegger administration over the past two years. The 1,138 "flex-fuel" vehicles -- large sedans and pickup trucks -- can run on E85, which is a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

The problem is only one public E85 station, in San Diego, existed in the state when they made the buys. It still is the only station.

After the MediaNews investigation, General Services began asking state employees with flex-fuel vehicles to use the station. As of Friday afternoon, 17 state vehicles had fueled up there 28 times, using 322 gallons of E85.

In addition, Rob Cook, former deputy director for General Services and a member of the governor's staff, said the state has invested $25 million to build dozens of alternative fuel stations, including E85 pumps, which should open in December 2009.

Lawmakers are less convinced.

They point out that the state has public alternative fuel sites -- MediaNews located more than 150 public compressed natural gas pumps and another 100 locations for propane -- but it doesn't use them, either.

Another concern of lawmakers is that General Services doesn't know where its alternative fuel vehicles are. That could hinder efforts to place alternative fuel stations where large numbers of alternative fuel vehicles have access to them.

"Each agency keeps track of its own vehicles," said Cook, adding that there are 119 state agencies with at least one vehicle.

Lieu believes additional data collection that bring together the locations of those vehicles and the pumps might finally lead to some meaningful consumption of green fuel. General Services said it hopes its new computer system will help with such an effort.

Alternative fuel experts say this kind of simple planning is needed if the state is ever going to wean its alternative fuel cars off gasoline. CALSTART, a nonprofit organization that represents 145 companies involved with clean transportation technologies in the state, will ask Schwarzenegger to support Lieu's proposals.

kkindy(at)mercurynews.com

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