Four new companies – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), Veolia Environmental Services, Best Buy and Johnson Controls Inc. – have joined the U.S. Department of Energy's National Clean Fleets Partnership, which is part of the DOE's larger Clean Cities program.
The National Clean Fleets Partnership, which was announced by the Obama administration in April 2011, is designed to support large private fleets that are taking steps to reduce petroleum use by deploying alternative-fuel vehicles and initiating fuel-economy improvements. The four new companies join 14 existing firms, such as FedEx, Ryder, AT&T, Coca-Cola, UPS and Verizon.
The DOE says PG&E operates more than 3,100 alternative-fuel and high-efficiency on-road vehicles, and Johnson Controls has more than 500 hybrid-electric vehicles in its fleet. Also, the solid-waste division of Veolia Environmental Services maintains a fleet of more than 100 compressed natural gas vehicles, and Best Buy's Geek Squad fleet has substantially reduced its vehicles' emissions over the past three years.
