WYANDOTTE, Ks. — Did you know there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road that are fueled by propane? More than a dozen can now be found in Wyandotte County.
The county’s Unified Government is converting its fleet of buses and some of its trucks to propane. County officials say the conversion is good for taxpayers and the environment.
How can you avoid paying more than $3.66 for a gallon of gasoline? (That figure was the national average on Saturday for a regular gallon of gas) The answer is simple. Switch to propane.
“We’ll save the Unified Government, the citizens of this community about $113,000 a year just in fuel savings alone,” said government spokesman Emerick Cross.
Wyandotte County’s Unified Government and the city of Kansas City, Kansas is showing off its new fleet of buses that were paid for with a U.S. Department of Energy grant. All 13 vehicles will run on propane fuel.
So how much is a gallon of propane gas?
“We’re paying 77 cents a gallon right now for propane gasoline,” Cross said.
The Unified Government said it has a contract with Ferrell Gas for the propane at $1.27 a gallon. The county receives an additional 50 cent rebate per gallon from the federal government.
The Department of Energy says propane is a cleaner burning fule and that vehicles using propane can produce lower amounts of harmful emissions due to its lower carbon content.
“So what happens if a bus is out on the road and runs out of propane? Not to worry – this fleet is equipped with two tanks,” Cross explained. “They’re bi-fuel tanks. We have both propane and gasoline –when our transit operators are out on a route, if they happen to run out of propane, the convertor kit automatically converts it over to gasoline,”
The Unified Government says it costs $9,000 to convert each bus to run on propane gas. It says that conversion is funded through grant money.
Only certain types of vehicles can run on propane fuel.
The Department of Energy says propane was ruled an alternative fuel in 1992.
