Washington Post: Obama Administration to Prime Pump of Hybrid Market

The Washington Post this morning has a story about the Obama Administration’s plans to buy 17,600 American cars for government use, including “2,500 hybrid sedans, the largest one-time purchase of hybrid vehicles to date for the federal fleet.”

There’s more to the initiative, apparently, than just hybrids:

Each vehicle must have a better fuel economy rating than the one it replaces. The government aims to boost the new fleet’s overall fuel efficiency at least 10 percent.

The new cars are intended to reduce the government’s gasoline consumption by 1.3 million gallons a year and prevent 26 million pounds of carbon-dioxide from entering the atmosphere, the administration said.

Almost a year ago, in A New American Arsenal, ASP urged the government to “harness the vehicle fleets and building infrastructures of the U.S. government to prime the market for clean, renewable, and energy efficient products.” 

So on balance, we have to applaud the administration for this initiative.  But I am left wondering why out of more than 17,000 vehicles, only 2,500 are hybrids.

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