By the OGJ Online Staff
WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 4 -- The Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition Thursday said supports environmental groups urging the federal government to comply with a decade-old law designed to reduce oil imports by boosting alternative fuel vehicle fleets.
The environmental coalition Earthjustice (on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Bluewater Network, and the Sierra Club) filed a lawsuit this week that alleges 18 federal government agencies are not meeting obligations under the Energy Policy Act to purchase alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) for their fleets.
Richard Kolodziej, NGVC president, said, "There is no defensible reason for federal government agencies not to be meeting both the letter and spirit" of the law.
He said, "Today, car, truck and bus manufacturers offer the widest ever selection of natural gas and other AFVs to fit light, medium, and heavy-duty applications. Most are on federal GSA [General Service Administration] contract for quick order and delivery. Every gallon of alternative fuel used is one less gallon of oil the US has to import."
NGVC said several agencies have admitted noncompliance with the law in documents obtained by Earthjustice.
The Energy Policy Act, enacted in 1992 after the Persian Gulf War, considers natural gas to be an alternative vehicle fuel.
The lawsuit would force the federal government to meet AFV purchasing requirements. Government agencies have criticized the fleet standards, saying that they are difficult if not impossible to meet because automakers have not had a large economic incentive to supply vehicles that run on fuels that are typically more expensive or less readily available than gasoline.
The Energy Policy Act expanded on the Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1989, which required federal agencies to purchase some cars and light-duty trucks that run on natural gas and alcohol fuels.
The later law added liquefied petroleum gas, hydrogen, and electricity to the list of fuels that can be used to meet that mandate, and required the government to purchase the "maximum practicable" number of trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles powered by alternative fuels. The legislation required 25% of the new federal fleet in 1996 to use alternative fuels and up to 75% by 1999.
