Considering that the state registers motor vehicles, you'd think it would be easy to turn up fleets of 10 or more by computer cross-referencing. Not so, says Marlin Gottschalk, who is trying to run the EPD's Clean Fueled Fleet Program without much information to go on.

"The [county] tag office loads information into the state's Department of Revenue," he said, "but that does not provide very accurate tracking of vehicles, names and addresses."

A reporter's call to Fayette County's Tags and Titles office confirmed Gottschalk's remarks.

So The Citizen made a small, unscientific survey of potential clean-fueled fleet owners in Fayette County, and discovered that the only substantial fleets in the county are owned by municipal and county governments.

Of Peachtree City's 96 city vehicles, just under half are exempt from the CFFP because they are emergency vehicles. Tony Wood, Peachtree City's fleet manager, attended the EPD workshop held last week to help answer questions and identify qualifications and exemptions.

Spokesperson Betsy Tyler said that of the city's existing fleet, 16 are "dedicated natural gas," i.e., were built from the ground up to run on compressed natural gas. "Twelve are police cars," she said, "and four are F-250 [Ford] trucks."

Some of the older police cars will be "recycled" into the administrative fleet as new cruisers are purchased. "This year we are purchasing four new vehicles, of which three will be dedicated natural gas," Tyler continued, "so that's 75 percent."

The city has its own centralized fueling station at the public works facility, where 5,500 gallons of natural gas was pumped last month alone.

"It's a pretty intense program with a lot of effort put into it," Wood said. "We're ahead in the game plan because we started back in 1995."

The Water and Sewer Authority of Peachtree City currently has four compressed natural gas trucks in their fleet of 20, said Larry Turner, WASA manager.

"We bought four last year, and I'm working on the application for this year, even as we speak," Turner said. He plans to add five vehicles to his fleet this year, and four should be CNG. If there were a CNG alternative for the fifth, he said he'd definitely order it configured "clean" too.

Turner said he has been very pleased with the performance of the CNG-fueled trucks: "The only drawback, which is not a drawback in Peachtree City, is the range." In the city, his drivers can fill up at the city's pumps, but in future, Turner envisions there will be a network of CNG stations not unlike the present network of gas stations. "There'll have to be," he said.

Bill Lackey, fleet manager for Fayette County, said he has 75 to 80 light-duty vehicles, but most are emergency vehicles, hence exempt. He does have five "clean fuel" vehicles and is especially pleased with his three electric-powered Ford Rangers ironically, because, he said, "one reason we didn't like the compressed natural gas [vehicles] was the range." The electric Rangers are rated at only 58 miles of range. With improved technology, that will increase; Toyota manufactures some electric cars with a traveling range of 140 miles, Lackey said.

The county's other two "clean" vehicles are propane, and one propane-fueled truck stands alone in Lackey's "guess-timated" 40 heavy-duty trucks. "We'll have to buy more next year," he said, "and we are working to meet our requirements we're staying on top of all that." He said he did not recall receiving the EPD questionnaire that came out in October.

The cost factor impresses Lackey more than anything else. While it costs five or six cents per mile to run conventional vehicles, he said, electric cost two to three cents a mile, with tires and brakes virtually the only maintenance item.

Phil Jackson, co-owner of Nature's Nursery, has only four trucks for his two locations in Peachtree City and Fayetteville. He admits he did not send the survey back to the state: "It didn't seem to apply to me," he said. Indeed the program does not apply, but Gottschalk will keep after Jackson until his non-qualifying fleet is registered.

Suspicious of government programs, Jackson said, "It's just going to end up costing me more in taxes and regulations."

Tom's Pest Control has only four trucks, so owner Tom Dolan is exempt.

And whoever answered the phone at A Confidential Limousine Service in Fayetteville declined to say how many vehicles his company operates.