Hybrid Vehicles

Maryland will receive $5.9 million in stimulus money to help pay for 150 new hybrid vehicles used on state roads by private companies, state officials announced yesterday. The companies include Aramark, Efficiency Enterprises, Nestle Waters of North America, Sysco Corp. and UPS. As a group committed to alternative fuel vehicles, they formed the Maryland Hybrid Truck Good Movement Initiative to seek the money to help offset the cost of new trucks and buses. Total cost for the new fleets will be $14.7 million, with the companies paying the difference.

If you are traveling the roads of western Howard County some pleasant fall morning, there's a chance you'll spot a bicyclist who seems to be going rather fast for the amount of exertion he's putting into his pedaling. Meet Daniel Rowell, an intrepid commuter who regularly makes the roughly 22-mile journey from his North Laurel home to his Sykesville workplace aboard his $8,000 Optibike — a hybrid electric bicycle that supplements pedal power with a battery-driven engine. Rowell is one of a small band of long-distance commuters who regularly leave cars at home and hop aboard electric bikes.

Howard County would buy 25 hybrid vehicles for its government fleet and up to five hybrid buses for the local bus system if the County Council adopts a $1.3 billion budget presented last night by County Executive Ken Ulman. Reflecting an environmental theme that Ulman emphasized in last year's election, the budget also proposes a pilot program to add solar power to public buildings. Ulman's first operating budget - a 10.7 percent increase from this fiscal year's spending plan - contains funds for more police officers and firefighters and gives the school board all but $2.3 million of the $429.

General Motors Corp. has chosen its White Marsh plant for a new effort to build electric motors, and on Tuesday it laid out plans for an expansion that will generate 180 much-needed jobs and provide a boost for the hard-hit manufacturing sector. The automaker, which would become the first car company to produce its own electric motors, announced that it plans to start making the devices in 2013. The company is investing $246 million, including state funds and federal stimulus money, to construct a new 40,000-square-foot facility next to the site where workers now build transmissions, including some that go into hybrid vehicles.

Howard County has received eight hybrid buses for its 28-vehicle paratransit fleet, enabling the replacement of 10-year-old vehicles that have about 300,000 miles on them -- double their expected life span and mileage. Howard Transit uses the vehicles to provide by-appointment transportation for handicapped residents. The new hybrid vehicles cost $200,000 each, with three paid for with federal stimulus money and three more with county funds. The other two vehicles were paid for with 80 percent federal money and 10 percent each from the state and the county.

General Motors Corp. has chosen its White Marsh plant for a new effort to build electric motors, and on Tuesday it laid out plans for an expansion that will generate 180 much-needed jobs and provide a boost for the hard-hit manufacturing sector. The automaker, which would become the first car company to produce its own electric motors, announced that it plans to start making the devices in 2013. The company is investing $246 million, including state funds and federal stimulus money, to construct a new 40,000-square-foot facility next to the site where workers now build transmissions, including some that go into hybrid vehicles.

No need to unplug the hybrid vehicles Doug Manzelmann's editorial notebook ("Unplugged," Jan. 31) discusses many of the challenges facing President Barack Obama's goal of making plug-in hybrid vehicles part of the answer to America's dependence on imported oil. However, Mr. Manzelmann's analysis paints too pessimistic an outlook for plug-ins. While the Chevy Volt may cost more initially than the Toyota Prius, that higher sticker price will be offset by the lower operating costs of the car and of its electric power system.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Owners of hybrid cars could use freeway carpool lanes, even with a single driver during rush hour, under legislation approved yesterday by the California Assembly and supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Despite near-certain approval in California, the new law would not take effect unless the Bush administration granted permission to the state. Federal transportation officials are pushing their own plan that could open the door for hybrid cars in carpool lanes.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Toyota's bold prediction that it would sell 600,000 hybrid vehicles annually in the United States by early next decade has been met with a collective "We'll see how it goes" from the rest of the industry. In a forum on future engines at an industry conference here yesterday, the Big Three domestic automakers and Honda took the road of caution. Honda and Ford sell hybrids now and the others plan to roll out gas/electric models over the next few years, but none would venture a sales projection.

Most of Maryland's top elected officials say they're committed to helping the environment, yet many of them get around in large sport utility vehicles. Gov. Martin O'Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and the executives of Anne Arundel, Harford, Prince George's and Montgomery counties all say they are fans of energy savings and foes of global warming. And all of them use vehicles environmentalists see as examples of excess. While a few elected officials have turned to hybrid vehicles, O'Malley, Brown, and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett travel in huge, ethanol-fueled Chevrolet Suburbans.

Howard County has received eight hybrid buses for its 28-vehicle paratransit fleet, enabling the replacement of 10-year-old vehicles that have about 300,000 miles on them -- double their expected life span and mileage. Howard Transit uses the vehicles to provide by-appointment transportation for handicapped residents. The new hybrid vehicles cost $200,000 each, with three paid for with federal stimulus money and three more with county funds. The other two vehicles were paid for with 80 percent federal money and 10 percent each from the state and the county.

Maryland will receive $5.9 million in stimulus money to help pay for 150 new hybrid vehicles used on state roads by private companies, state officials announced yesterday. The companies include Aramark, Efficiency Enterprises, Nestle Waters of North America, Sysco Corp. and UPS. As a group committed to alternative fuel vehicles, they formed the Maryland Hybrid Truck Good Movement Initiative to seek the money to help offset the cost of new trucks and buses. Total cost for the new fleets will be $14.7 million, with the companies paying the difference.

No need to unplug the hybrid vehicles Doug Manzelmann's editorial notebook ("Unplugged," Jan. 31) discusses many of the challenges facing President Barack Obama's goal of making plug-in hybrid vehicles part of the answer to America's dependence on imported oil. However, Mr. Manzelmann's analysis paints too pessimistic an outlook for plug-ins. While the Chevy Volt may cost more initially than the Toyota Prius, that higher sticker price will be offset by the lower operating costs of the car and of its electric power system.

Most of Maryland's top elected officials say they're committed to helping the environment, yet many of them get around in large sport utility vehicles. Gov. Martin O'Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and the executives of Anne Arundel, Harford, Prince George's and Montgomery counties all say they are fans of energy savings and foes of global warming. And all of them use vehicles environmentalists see as examples of excess. While a few elected officials have turned to hybrid vehicles, O'Malley, Brown, and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett travel in huge, ethanol-fueled Chevrolet Suburbans.

Howard County would buy 25 hybrid vehicles for its government fleet and up to five hybrid buses for the local bus system if the County Council adopts a $1.3 billion budget presented last night by County Executive Ken Ulman. Reflecting an environmental theme that Ulman emphasized in last year's election, the budget also proposes a pilot program to add solar power to public buildings. Ulman's first operating budget - a 10.7 percent increase from this fiscal year's spending plan - contains funds for more police officers and firefighters and gives the school board all but $2.3 million of the $429.

SNOW HILL -- Parked along Green Street here are the pickup trucks, vans and SUVs - a Chevy Blazer, a Ford Expedition, an Oldsmobile Silhouette - that you might expect to find in the commercial hub of a rural Eastern Shore community. But there aren't many compact cars to be seen here, and not a single hybrid - those gas-and-electric-powered cars so beloved of environmentalists and the economy-minded. Some people in Snow Hill aren't even sure what a hybrid car looks like. "I think I've heard of them," said William G. Cropper, who lives a few miles outside Snow Hill.

SNOW HILL -- Parked along Green Street here are the pickup trucks, vans and SUVs - a Chevy Blazer, a Ford Expedition, an Oldsmobile Silhouette - that you might expect to find in the commercial hub of a rural Eastern Shore community. But there aren't many compact cars to be seen here, and not a single hybrid - those gas-and-electric-powered cars so beloved of environmentalists and the economy-minded. Some people in Snow Hill aren't even sure what a hybrid car looks like. "I think I've heard of them," said William G. Cropper, who lives a few miles outside Snow Hill.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Toyota's bold prediction that it would sell 600,000 hybrid vehicles annually in the United States by early next decade has been met with a collective "We'll see how it goes" from the rest of the industry. In a forum on future engines at an industry conference here yesterday, the Big Three domestic automakers and Honda took the road of caution. Honda and Ford sell hybrids now and the others plan to roll out gas/electric models over the next few years, but none would venture a sales projection.