Cities get push toward other fuels

Alicia Robinson

Although hydrogen-fueled vehicles are several years from being widely

available to consumers, they’re the buzz of the transportation world

today.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged to create a network of

hydrogen fuel stations by 2010. And Rep. Christopher Cox has

announced his sponsorship of provisions in the Energy Policy Act of

2003 that would offer tax incentives for the construction of hydrogen

fueling stations and the purchase of fuel cell vehicles as well as

repealing the mandated percentage of ethanol in California’s

gasoline.

The act was passed by the House but is being held up by a

Democratic filibuster in the Senate, Cox spokeswoman Kate Whitman

said. Public opinion on the viability of hydrogen-fueled vehicles

also seems to be pending.

Cox’s proposals seem promising to the South Coast Air Quality

Management District, the agency responsible for air pollution control

in a 12,000-square-mile area that includes Orange and Los Angeles

counties.

“We support that concept of accelerating the use of fuel-cell

vehicles and the infrastructure that goes with it,” district

spokeswoman Tina Cherry said.

The district has worked with Cox and other legislators to gather

more funding for hydrogen fuel initiatives, she said.

Most of the district’s authority is over stationary air pollution

sources such as factories, but in 2000 it issued “fleet” rules

applying to large vehicles such as transit and school buses and

street sweepers.

Another district spokesman, Sam Atwood, said that about 80% of air

pollution today comes from mobile sources such as cars, trucks,

planes and boats.

The district’s fleet rules try to combat this pollution. They

require operators of fleets with more than 15 vehicles -- both public

and private -- to buy alternative fuel vehicles when they replace old

vehicles or add to their fleets.

As they exist, the rules can be a burden for fleet operators to

follow. Several diesel manufacturers and oil companies challenged the

rules in court and the state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the

case in January.

Dave Niederhaus, fleet manager for the city of Newport Beach, is

in charge of the state’s largest fleet of electric vehicles and he’s

also on a technical advisory committee for the South Coast Air

Quality Management District.

The city has had its electric Toyota RAV4s for six years now but

will be looking for alternatives now that auto manufacturers are

discontinuing electric models.

“We see the end of the full-size electric vehicles,” Niederhaus

said. “We had hoped that the hydrogen vehicle would be ready to take

its place, but those are maybe five to 10 years away.”

While other alternative fuel vehicles are out there, such as those

with compressed natural gas or propane engines or hybrids, Niederhaus

said, they’re generally more expensive, and he’s heard from other

cities that some types of vehicles don’t run reliably.

“The alternatives are too expensive or nonexistent,” Niederhaus

said. “[The fleet rules are] just a thing that got mandated a little

ahead of its time, and it’s just kind of a financial bombshell for

all the cities.”

Costa Mesa has a melange of alternative-fuel vehicles, including a

natural gas-powered dump truck, some gas/electric hybrid vehicles and

a new propane street sweeper, Maintenance Services Manager Bruce

Hartley said.

The City Council has chosen to go beyond the fleet rules, and the

city belongs to a coalition that promotes alternative fuel use, he

said.

The city is seeking funding for a compressed natural gas fueling

station that could be converted to serve hydrogen vehicles in the

future.

Cox’s legislation promoting hydrogen vehicles may be premature

because fuel cell technology is still in its infancy, Hartley said.

“I think he’s putting the cart before the horse in that right now

,there’s not a lot of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles out [on the

market],” he said.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles may be as much as a decade away from

being widely available, but initiatives such as Cox’s could help

speed their progress, Atwood said.

“Certainly, tax incentives will help,” he said. “Basically, we

need every encouragement out there to develop these zero-polluting

vehicles.”

Looking at the technology that’s available today, Niederhaus was

more skeptical about the future of hydrogen-fueled vehicles. Some

consider them dangerous because the highly pressurized fuel tanks can

explode in certain circumstances, he said.

“I’m not convinced that they really are the panacea for the

future,” he said. “I wouldn’t put my family in one of those.”