Environmental Leader

The U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force plan to buy thousands of electric cars and light trucks to provide on-base transport, Army Times reports.

The Army plans to order electric cars from Columbia ParCar Corp., Native American Biofuels International and other electric-car makers. Eight hundreds cars will be delivered next year and 4,000 more over the next three years. Paul Bollinger, deputy assistant Army secretary for energy and partnerships, told Army Times that ultimately, “we should be able to go to at least 10,000 vehicles overall.”

Compared to the roughly $24,00 in fuel to run a gas-powered car, Bollinger says each electric car would use an average of about $400 in electricity per year, and that the 4,000 electric cars will save 11.5 million gallons of fuel annually.

Boston is also planning to retrofit and test-drive about 20 plug-in cars for official use. The Boston Globe reported that half of the funding for the conversion will come from the federal Congestion mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program. Philip Giudice, the commissioner for the state Department of Energy Resources told the Boston Globe that the state hopes to front half the cost, or $400,000, to purchase and retrofit another 20 cars to be tested by local companies.

In another move to become for environmentally responsible, Boston launched a two-month pilot program dubbed Lights Out Boston in September.

In July the army announced plans to cut its GHG emissions by 30 percent in 2015. It recently released its first sustainability report.