State fleets try to conserve gas

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 5, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The rising price of gasoline hit state department budgets as hard as taxpayers’ pocketbooks, state officials say.

Millions of dollars have been allocated to the state’s most mobile agencies to cover additional fuel costs from the past budget year and to hopefully prepare them for the next.

“Fuel is a major concern,” Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain said.

The department uses a fleet of more than 900 vehicles to inspect and regulate the state’s agriculture business, including monitoring food production and checking every gas pump in Louisiana, Strain said.

Strain said he is planning a fuel summit next week with his employees to emphasize the need to conserve fuel.

Since the beginning of this year, the department has pumped nearly 490,000 gallons of fuel into its vehicles at an expense of more than $1.5 million, agriculture department press secretary Sam Irwin said.

Department of Transportation and Development spokesman Dustin Annison said cutting down the 6,000 vehicles used to maintain roads and bridges would mean a subsequent reduction in their service to the public.

“Being that our business is mainly doing road work all over the state, there’s really not much we can do in terms of cutting our fleet,” Annison said.

But the department has been able to make more fuel-efficient choices when buying replacement vehicles through the state Division of Administration, Annison said.

Michael DiResto, spokesman for the state Division of Administration, said the state purchasing department is working on a new system whereby state departments and agencies would be required to use more fuel-efficient cars as they become available through the purchasing process.

That action is along the lines of an executive order issued earlier this year by Gov. Bobby Jindal that calls for all state agencies to practice “green government.”

DiResto said the Division of Administration already has been monitoring agencies’ budgets and offering assistance through supplemental appropriations when possible.

State Police received $1.3 million in additional money for fuel costs to finish out the fiscal year that ended June 30, DiResto said. Their 2009 budget includes more than $850,000 in additional funds, he said.