SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, VA – Spotsylvania County in Virginia has converted a number of vehicles to run on propane autogas via the Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program. The County converted 20 sheriff’s department police cruisers and four school district trucks and is expected to save approximately $70,000 in fuel costs annually and displace more than 60 tons of greenhouse gases.

The converted vehicles include 20 Ford Crown Victoria patrol cars, two Chevrolet 2500s, one Ford E-250 and one GMC 2500. Outside of SPADP, the County also operates five dedicated propane autogas Blue Bird school buses.

Craig Greenlaw, Director of Fleet Services for Spotsylvania County, said reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel costs has been a priority for the county’s 1,200-vehicle fleet.

“We chose propane autogas for our fleet vehicles because of the win-win aspect: fuel savings and reduced emissions,” he said. “Autogas burns cleaner than gasoline, and we’re saving money with every mile the autogas vehicles travel, compared to our gasoline vehicles.”

According to Greenlaw, the County would see an ROI in 2 to 2 and a half years for the parts and labor of future autogas conversions, based on gasoline and autogas price trends and the average annual mileage of county vehicles (anywhere from 20,000-30,000 miles per vehicle per year). Greenlaw said it County funding becomes available that he plans to convert more vehicles.

Alliance AutoGas founding partner Blossman Gas installed one fueling station in the County and provides the fuel for the station. This fueling site stores 500 gallons of propane autogas and is located centrally to accommodate the County’s propane autogas fleet vehicles. The county school system also has a 10,000-gallon propane autogas tank at the vehicle service center to fuel the five propane autogas school buses.

The Lee County Sheriff's Department also recently converted police cruisers to propane autogas, as did Sandy Springs, Ga.