HUNTINGTON BEACH : Methanol Vehicles to Join City Fleet

With the help of a $150,000 grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the city is buying 13 vehicles that run on methanol.

The city is combining the grant money with $75,000 from its general fund to buy five Ford vans and eight Lumina sedans, all of which are powered by the cleaner-burning fuel.

The vehicles--the first the city has purchased that do not run on gasoline--are the first step in what city officials say will be a long-term effort to use less-polluting products.

They will be delivered within a month and used for a variety of city services. The Police Department will use a van to transport prisoners, and another van will be used by the Community Services Department. Four of the sedans will go to the Fire Department, which already had plans to replace much of its fleet.

The effort aims to cut smog and set an example for residents, Deputy City Administrator Richard Barnard said.

A methanol fuel pump will be installed at a Huntington Beach gas station by this summer, Barnard said.

The site of the methanol station, which will serve city vehicles in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley as well as the public, has not yet been confirmed.

The vehicles are specially manufactured to run on either unleaded gas or methanol, which burns 20 to 30 times cleaner, officials said.

“We’re looking to do more of this kind of thing,” Barnard said. “I see these methanol vehicles as an interim step as the various auto manufacturers get to the point of developing and marketing electric vehicles. We’ll be looking at a few different type of fuels to see which one is best for our needs.”

The California Energy Commission has purchased 2,000 methanol vehicles and is selling them to cities and other government agencies. Under a separate AQMD clean-air incentive program, Huntington Beach won the grant to buy the vehicles from the Energy Commission.

“So what we did is put those two programs together,” Barnard said.