Vol. 13, No. 1 - January 2009
Clean Cities Now is the official publication of Clean Cities, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Program, designed to reduce petroleum consumption in the transportation sector by advancing the use of alternative fuel vehicles, idle reduction technologies, hybrid electric vehicles, fuel blends, and fuel economy.
Interstate 65, extending 886 miles between Gary, Indiana and Mobile, Alabama, is the nation's first "biofuels corridor." In 2005, there were no biofuel stations along I-65. Today the corridor designation means that a driver is no more than 100 miles from a participating E85 retailer. The $1.3 million federal project funded 31 E85 and five B20 stations and one biodiesel blending facility located on the Indiana-Ohio border. Matching funds for construction and conversion were provided by individual infrastructure owners. E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline for use in flexible fuel vehicles, and B20, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum-based diesel for use in diesel vehicles, are fuels made with renewable agricultural products. More
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Melissa Howell was named Clean Cities Coordinator of the Year by the U.S. Department of Energy. Howell has been at the helm of the Louisville-based Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition (KCFC) for 14 years. Under her leadership, the coalition reduced petroleum consumption in Kentucky by 11 million GGE in 2007. Of this, 7 million GGE was displaced through the use of biodiesel, mainly in school buses and heavy equipment. More
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Reducing vehicle miles traveled seems like an insurmountable challenge for a long-haul delivery service that supplies 185 retail super centers throughout the Midwest. Yet Meijer, Inc., based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has increased profitability while reducing miles driven by 2.5 million miles in the past year, saving nearly 385,000 gallons of diesel fuel in the past year. Meijer is a stakeholder in Greater Lansing Area Clean Cities. More
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The Petroleum Reduction Planning Tool is an interactive application that allows fleets, consumers, and business owners to develop petroleum reduction strategies by selectively choosing from eight different methods to accomplish their goals. The tool automatically calculates petroleum use reductions generated from the deployment of hybrids, alternative fuels, biodiesel blends, improved fuel economy, idling reduction, and vehicle miles traveled reductions. The Petroleum Reduction Planning Tool is available in the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center (AFDC) Fleet section. More
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