The McKinney Courier-Gazette (Texas) gives a fairly detailed description of the alternative fuel strategy being employed by the Collin County, Texas, fleet managers, which includes clean diesel fuel (ultra-low sulfur after a biodiesel trial), hybrids, bi-fuel trucks (propane or gasoline) and retrofitting.

But the county is not alone in its use of alternatively fueled vehicles. Local governments are increasingly turning to the vehicles as a way to promote cleaner air in their areas.

Collin County, like so many other metropolitan areas in Texas is considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be in non-attainment for the reduction of ground-level ozone, so local governments, the search for cleaner fuels seems to be the only answer.

“I think it’s increasing,” Israel Anderson, a spokesman for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said about the use of alternatively fueled vehicles. “If you go to most larger urban areas, you’ll see a big emphasis on buying clean vehicles and using alternative fuels.”

Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Texas Department of Transportation, Capital Metro in Austin, the cities of Houston, Austin and San Antonio use either ultra-low sulfur diesel, hybrid vehicles, natural gas vehicles or some combination.

This kind of information needs to get out more widely. What works, what doesn’t, what’s next? All focused on a single goal, in this case, coming into attainment with EPA regulations. There is clarity to the problem, complexity in the solutions, and structure to the approach.