GAO: PHEVs Potentially Beneficial, but Costs Can Hinder Federal Fleet Integration
By Scott Doggett June 26, 2009
The U.S. government has set a goal - via Executive Order 13423
, signed by President Bush in 2007 - for federal agencies to use plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, as they become available at a reasonable cost.
In response to a request from several key U.S. representatives, the federal Government Accountability Office examined the potential benefits of PHEVs, factors affecting the availability of plug-ins, and challenges to incorporating plug-ins into the federal fleet.
The GAO, in a report released this week, found that increasing the use of plug-ins could result in environmental and other benefits, but also that realizing these benefits depends on several factors.
Although plug-ins could significantly reduce oil consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions, the electricity used for charging the batteries would need to be generated from lower-emission fuels such as nuclear and renewable energy rather than fossil fuels - coal and natural gas - for PHEVs to reach their full potential.
Nothing there we've not reported time and again. Same can be said for the GAO's conclusion that for plug-ins to be cost effective relative to gasoline-powered vehicles, the price of batteries must come down significantly and gasoline prices must be high relative to electricity.
Indeed, the GAO study didn't veer much from common knowledge until it turned to the topic of the future makeup of the federal fleet. To incorporate plug-ins into the federal fleet, the GAO concluded, agencies will face challenges related to cost, availability, planning, and federal requirements.
Plug-ins are expected to have high upfront costs when they are first introduced, the study concluded, and agencies vary in the extent to which they use life-cycle costing when evaluating which vehicle to purchase.
Agencies also may find that plug-ins are not available to them, especially when the vehicles are initially introduced, because the number available to the government may be limited.
In addition, agencies have not made plans to incorporate plug-ins due to uncertainties about vehicle cost, performance, and infrastructure needs. Finally, agencies must meet a number of requirements covering energy use and vehicle acquisition - such as acquiring alternative fuel vehicles and reducing facility energy and petroleum consumption - but these sometimes conflict with one another.
For example, plugging vehicles into federal facilities could reduce petroleum consumption but increase facility energy use. The federal government has not yet provided information to agencies on how to set priorities for these requirements or leverage different types of vehicles to do so.
Without such information, the GAO said, agencies face challenges in making decisions about acquiring plug-ins that will meet the requirements, as well as maximize plug-ins' potential benefits and minimize costs.
At least as significant as the conclusions the GAO came to are the recommendations the agency made to facilitate PHEV acquisition and integration into the federal fleet. They include:
To enable agencies to more effectively meet congressional requirements, the energy secretary should propose legislative changes that would resolve the conflicts and set priorities for the multiple requirements and goals with respect to reducing petroleum consumption, reducing emissions, managing costs, and acquiring advanced technology vehicles.
The secretary of energy should also begin to develop guidance for when agencies consider acquiring plug-in vehicles, as well as guidance specifying the elements that agencies should include in their plans for acquiring the mix of vehicles that will best enable them to meet their requirements and goals.
Such guidance, the GAO said, might include assessing the need for installing charging infrastructure and identifying areas where improvements may be necessary, mapping current driving patterns, and determining the energy sources used to generate electricity in an area.
The secretary of energy should also continue ongoing efforts to develop guidance for agencies on how electricity used to charge plug-ins should be measured and accounted for in meeting energy-reduction goals related to federal facilities and alternative-fuel consumption.
In doing so, the GAO suggested, the secretary should determine whether changes to existing legislation will be needed to ensure there is no conflict between using electricity to charge vehicles and requirements to reduce the energy intensity of federal facilities, and advise Congress accordingly.
The full list of suggestions, which appear in the detailed 53-page report, not only convey a sense that the Government Accounting Office has discovered a host of problems likely to hamper the integration of PHEVs into the federal fleet, but on an optimistic note, the agency is coming up with solutions.
Excellent!
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