President’s ‘Clean Fleets’ Partnership Open for Participation

Landover, Md., April 1, 2011 — At a UPS facility in suburban Maryland, President Barack Obama announced that some of America’s largest companies will invest in energy-efficient vehicles under a new partnership with the federal government. Alliance Associate AT&T was one of the companies showcased at the event, and Alliance representatives attended at AT&T’s invitation.

Joined by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and an audience of 300 UPS employees, Obama announced the National Clean Fleets Partnership. Under the program, participating businesses will replace vehicles used to transport goods with clean energy fleets. Such a change is “not only good for [businesses’] bottom line, but good for our economy, good for our country, good for our planet,” Obama said.

By upgrading to fuel-efficient vehicles, the initiative seeks to cut oil use among fleets by 2.5 billion gallons by 2020.

Clean Fleets: An Opportunity for Big Companies to Save Energy, Money

The charter members of Clean Fleets – AT&T, UPS, FedEx, PepsiCo and Verizon – have some of the largest commercial fleets in the nation, operating more than 275,000 vehicles total.  With technical assistance from the Department of Energy (DOE) and its Clean Cities program, these five companies will replace 20,000 delivery trucks with fuel-efficient vehicles. This change alone will save an estimated 7 million gallons of fuel per year, which accounts for two-fifths of Obama’s fuel-saving goal for all fleets, according to the Associated Press. 

But in order to reach Obama’s goal of saving 2.5 billion gallons of fuel among fleets by 2020, DOE is challenging other companies to join the effort. Companies can join National Clean Fleets if they operate fleets in multiple states and control 50% or more of their vehicles. To become a Clean Fleets partner, a company signs a partnership agreement and provides baseline data on its fleet operations. Then, a Clean Cities account manager works one-on-one with fleet representatives to create a strategy to reduce petroleum use.

Reducing Oil Dependence with Energy Efficiency

“One of the best ways to reduce our dependence on oil is by making our cars and trucks more energy efficient,” Obama said at the April 1 event, noting that more than 70% of U.S. oil consumption comes from transportation. 

Obama expects the Clean Fleets partnership to help reduce dependence on foreign oil, stabilize the U.S. economy and gasoline prices, and create new jobs and new industries – all factors leading to a clean energy economy. Fuel-efficient fleets also support one of Obama’s overall goals for the nation: to cut the amount of oil it imports by one-third, from 11 to 7 million barrels of oil per day, by 2025. 

AT&T Already Saving

Companies participating in the Clean Fleets Partnership already have started adding fuel-efficient cars and trucks to their fleets. For instance, AT&T’s corporate fleet avoided using 1 million gallons of petroleum in 2010 through the increased use of energy efficiency.

“Our investment in more fuel-efficient vehicles helps minimize our impact on the environment, delivers bottom-line benefits to our company and helps to spur job growth in the domestic clean energy sector,” said Jerome Webber, vice president of AT&T Global Fleet Operations.

For More Info

• How to become a Clean Fleets partner
• Clean Fleets website
• White House Clean Fleets fact sheet
• White House Clean Fleets announcement transcript