Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

MEDIUM­TERM GOALS & STRATEGIES (5­15 years)
1. Reduce the size of the City fleet by at least 25% though partnerships with carsharing
groups.
Many communities have successfully implemented such programs. For example, the City of
Philadelphia has a municipal fleet of approximately 6,000 vehicles and joined with the
PhillyCarShare 116 , the community’s non‐profit car sharing service in 2004. 117 This was the
first system worldwide in which government employees and local resident shared vehicles
by the hour in a major effort to reduce the number of vehicles in the community. Within the
space of four years, the project helped the City of Philadelphia eliminate 330 vehicles and
save taxpayers almost $2 million annually. See the Transportation chapter for more details
on car sharing.
2. Implement a pilot Grease­to­Biofuel Program whereby the City offers local
restaurants free vegetable oil collection for processing into biodiesel to fuel
the City fleet.
Communities such as San Francisco 118 and Seattle have started to leverage restaurant
grease to fuel municipal vehicles as concern over the environmental harm of soy biodiesel
mounts. 119 As discussed elsewhere, this would divert harmful fats, oil, and grease away
from the City’s sewer system.
LONG­TERM GOAL (15­30 years)
1. Realize a Model City Fleet.
All City vehicles, especially emergency vehicles, should be transitioned away from fossil‐
fuel reliance.
116 http://www.phillycarshare.org/.
117 http://www.mayorsinnovation.org/pdf/PhiladelphiaFleetManagement.pdf; The City’s effort landed it as a 2006
finalist for Harvard’s Innovations in Government Award
http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=15709
118 San Francisco’s initiative can be found here: http://www.sfgreasecycle.org/thedish.shtml. Converting
grease into biofuel requires some processing including filtering, settling and decanting. If the City led the way
in creating a demand for such product, it could help foster a whole new local green industry.
119 In May 2009, Seattle mayor Greg Nickels directed the Seattle Fleet department to stop buying soy biodiesel
after the EPA issued a report stating that ethanol production was potentially worse for the environment than
gasoline. Chris Grygiel, “City of Seattle Halts Biodiesel Purchases, Looks for Greener Fuel,” Seattle Post­
Intelligencer, June 19, 2009.
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