Saving Taxpayers Money With Cleaner Air

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has made a commitment to an alternate fuel fleet by 2011. We are about 80% toward that goal. An important benefit that comes with this is cleaner air. However, a real benefit to taxpayers is that many of the alternate fuels are also less expensive. Recently, the District bought two new gasoline-electric hybrid Chevrolet Tahoes for police vehicles. Although they are more expensive, our fuel cost savings will amount to about $31,000 each over the life of the cars. Some other fuels are significantly cheaper than gas. For example, the cost of natural gas is about $1.04 for the gas equivalent of a gallon of gas. Liquid propane comes in at about $2.60. Our commitment to alternate fuel technologies has proven to be good for our environment. It has also proven to be a wise move in protecting the taxpayer's wallet.