In response to the mandates of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) as well as a Presidential Executive Order (E.O. 13149) issued in 1999, the federal government has increased its overall use of alternative fuels as well as the number of AFV’s in its fleet dramatically.

Here are some statistics provided by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE);

The Federal Government used 4.4 million gallons (gasoline equivalent or MGGE) of alternative fuels in 2004. This represents an increase of over 51% from 2003 levels. It is interesting to note that the largest increases were in the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) at almost 1.2 MGGE and B-100 biodiesel at 1.3 MGGE.

The Federal Government currently has over 85,000 AFV’s in its fleet which is a 65% increase of their fleet in the year 2000. Moreover, 95% of all new vehicle purchases made by the Federal Government in (FY) 2004 were AFV’s.

Although not eligible for consideration as AFV’s, the government also purchased 339 hybrids in 2004 and is planning further hybrid purchases in 2005.

The federal government exceeded the AFV fleet requirements set forth in EPAct by 27% in (FY) 2004.