Cedar Rapids police cars using cleaner fuel

Bad guys might get the notion that the Police Department has gone soft now that squad cars here are going “green” with an 85-15 percent ethanol-gasoline blend of fuel.

They'd be mistaken.

Dennis Hogan, the manager of the city's fleet operation, assured last week that the city's move to E85 fuel will do nothing to reduce the performance of police squad cars or any other vehicle in the city's 850-vehicle fleet.

On the plus side, he says E85 will make vehicles that use the fuel more environmentally friendly: The high alcohol content of E85 burns cleaner, Hogan says.

And as importantly, he adds, E85 is a way for the city of Cedar Rapids to support the state of Iowa, where corn for E85, of course, is part of the landscape.

“This gives us an opportunity to have an impact on our state's economy,” Hogan, a Cedar Rapids native, says.

In the last couple of weeks, the city has installed an E85 pump attached to a 10,000 gallon underground storage tank at the Police Station.

Seventeen of the city's 57 Ford Crown Victoria squad cars now are flex-fuel vehicles, capable of running on E85. Another 15 new flex-fuel squad cars will be hitting the streets in the next few weeks, bringing to 32 the number of flex-fuel squad cars among the 57 total. In addition, a few other Police Department vehicles are running on E85 as are about a dozen cars and pickups at the Public Works Department.

Hogan, who has worked as fleet manager both at the University of Iowa and Alliant Energy in the past, says that his experience in both places have convinced him that E85 does not reduce vehicle performance or increase maintenance costs.

It is true that vehicles using E85, he says, do get fewer miles per gallon than typical 10-percent ethanol, which government vehicles in the state have used for some time. He's seen studies that put the percentage reduction at 10 to 20 percent. However, he intends to do his own study to measure the mileage difference between E85 and E10. Then he'll do a cost analysis. With current government subsidies, E85 costs the city 14 cents less a gallon than E10, he reports.

In the end, if the cost to the city is more using E85 than E10, there are still pluses with E85 from an emissions standpoint and for the state economy, he says.

In another step toward making the city's fleet of vehicles greener, Hogan will expand the number of city diesel vehicles that use biodiesel and will begin using B20 - a mix of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel - instead of B10.

Beyond that, Hogan says he isn't rushing too fast into the future because technology is changing. He says he constantly has vendors calling to promote natural gas, propane, hybrid engines and much else. He wants to see the proof first, he says.

The last thing he wants is for taxpayers to see a bunch of latest-tech city vehicles running around town on the back of tow trucks.

Hogan acknowledges that the city of Cedar Rapids' isn't leading the charge on E85 government vehicles in Iowa. The city of Dubuque, for instance, has 21 E85 vehicles, including 17 police squad cars, and an E85 pump. The city of Iowa City has some flex-fuel vehicles, but no E85 pump at this point, reports Dale Helling, interim city manager.