SB 893 - This act modifies the fuel efficiency requirements for state vehicles. The act revises the definition of alternative fuel. Current law requires a twenty percent reduction in fuel consumption by state vehicles by 1997. The act replaces this goal with a requirement that state agencies meet minimum guidelines for efficient vehicle fleet management as established by the Department of Natural Resources. The guidelines shall be revised every two years and shall at a minimum require each agency's overall vehicle fleet fuel efficiency to equal the efficiency that would be achieved if each vehicle in the fleet met the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard. State agencies may either: 1) submit a fleet efficiency plan that meets these guidelines; or 2) purchase only vehicles that meet or exceed the CAFE standard and have a life cycle cost that is equal to or less than the average for the vehicle class. The Commissioner of Administration may waive the fuel efficiency requirements for certain types of vehicles as specified in the act.

The act changes requirements for the purchase and use of state vehicles capable of using alternative fuels. These vehicles shall comprise ten percent of state agency fleet purchases between July 1, 1994, and July 1, 1996, thirty percent of purchases between July 1, 1996 and July 1, 1998, and fifty percent of purchases during each biennial period thereafter. Vehicles purchased before July 1, 1994, or in excess of a biennial goal may be credited toward any future goal. The requirement that the cost of these vehicles not exceed the cost of conventional vehicles by more than five percent is repealed.

Current law requires thirty percent of state-owned alternative fuel vehicles to operate solely on an alternative fuel by 2002. The act revises this provision to require, by July 1, 2000, that alternative fuel comprise at least thirty percent of the fuel purchased annually for alternative fuel vehicles. Alternative fuel used in non-fleet vehicles may be credited toward an agency's annual goal.
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