Government fleet full of gas guzzlers
Jeanette put Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen on the back foot in the House today when she questioned him on the Government’s Ministerial fleet of chauffeured and self-drive vehicles. A Green Party Official Information Act request has revealed that the fleet is made up of primarily Ford Fairlanes and Ford LTDs, which use a staggering 14.5 litres per 100 kilometres! As Jeanette points out in her release:
“This is almost 50 percent more than the average car owned by New Zealanders,� Ms Fitzsimons says.
“In addition these Crown cars each produce, on average, six tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, almost three times more than the most efficient comfortable five-seaters coming into the country. The whole fleet unnecessarily adds about 200 tonnes of damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year.
And most of these vehicles have been purchased after the Government committed to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 and to it’s own Govt3 programme to improve Government’s environmental performance!
Poor Michael Cullen was quite flustered - a rarity - by Jeanette’s questions, making a bizarre comment about Fords vs Holdens to deflect one, and replying to another by saying that some of the fleet uses LPG, which simply isn’t the case. He did offer to take the issue up with the Prime Minister though, as he himself “prefers smaller cars”.
I’ll post the transcript when it’s available.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Hmmm
There’s clearly not enough stigma attached to gas guzzling in the corridoors - good to see someone jumping onto it. Mayby a Greenpeace-esque ploy:
http://shoppingfix.blogspot.com/2006/07/outcast-my-dad-drives-one-my-f latmate_26.html
Or even better, how about some “buying quality” thinking:
http://shoppingfix.blogspot.com/2006/03/stink-my-ride-car-is-most-like ly-one.html
(Excuse the link length - havn’t worked out how to write html in wordpress yet)
Ref to Govt3 is a great point frog. What have they been on?
August 31st, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Here’s the transcript from the House (check out the Hansard and other cool features of the new Parliament website)
4. JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader-Green) to the Minister responsible for Ministerial Services: Is she confident that purchase decisions made by her officials in relation to the VIP Transport Service fleet are consistent with the Govt3 programme?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Leader of the House): on behalf of the Minister responsible for Ministerial Services: The Department of Internal Affairs is now taking into account the Govt3 programme in its purchasing planning, and I expect to see this reflected in the make-up of the VIP Transport service fleet over time.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Why are most of the ministerial chauffeur-driven cars Ford Fairlanes and Ford LTDs that are identified on the Government’s own fuelsaver website as among the worst gas guzzlers in the country, using 14.5 litres per 100 kilometres driven?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I think there is only one LTD left in the fleet now, although I am not sure of that, they are nearly all Ford Fairlanes. These, of course, reflect past purchasing practices. Speaking personally-as myself, not as the Minister responsible for Ministerial Services-I find the Fords uncomfortable and noisy compared with the average 2-litre Japanese saloon.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: What message will it send to ordinary Kiwis who are buying smaller cars and making a personal commitment to address peak oil and climate change, when they learn that Crown cars each produce around 6 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide, which is almost three times as much as the most efficient, comfortable five-seaters available?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I am advised by the Hon Harry Duynhoven, who is an expert in all these sorts of matters, that the Ford fleet is doing considerably better in actual performance than it is rated for in the information the member refers to. But I shall take this up with the Prime Minister, preferring myself to ride in somewhat smaller cars than a Ford Fairlane.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Why were all of these gas guzzlers-the worst ones-purchased since the Government announced the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and since the start of the Govt3 programme, launched in 2003?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I have not got the numbers. Some of the cars, certainly, have liquefied petroleum gas, and some of the cars in Auckland-it is not so in Wellington, I think-are Holdens, not Fords.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Will the Minister commit to ensuring that all future vehicle purchases are in the best 10 percent of those available in New Zealand for fuel efficiency and carbon emissions?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: No. I think probably that the notion of using Toyota Echos as the ministerial fleet probably is not the wisest of moves. But I certainly believe that the ministerial fleet operators can look at more efficient vehicles than the ones that have been bought, in some form or another, for I think something like 25 years-since we ceased to use Chryslers at some point in the 1970s.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: I seek leave to table two lots of documents. The first is a print-out from the Government’s fuelsaver website, giving the fuel efficiency of the Fairlanes.
Leave granted.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: I further seek leave to table a set of specifications for a number of vehicles available in New Zealand at the moment, which do not include the Toyota Echo, and which have fuel efficiencies around 4, 5, and 6 litres per 100 kilometres.
Leave granted.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:27 pm
he, my friend at Toyota will be pleased…
August 31st, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Also, those who think question time is a waste of time should take note of this exchange. What amazes me when you hear or read a full version is just how much information is exchanged and how much comeback questioners have.
Of course the “highlights” on TV and radio totally miss this.
August 31st, 2006 at 7:55 pm
“What amazes me when you hear or read a full version is just how much information is exchanged and how much comeback questioners have.”
I agree jeeves … and question time helps to sort out the conscientious politicians from the few “posers” and “arested adolescents” (whom the sentational media like to use to give the whole lot a bad name.)
Our Green MPs are well respected in the House because they are intelligent, cooperative, hard working and “no nonsense” politicians.
I am proud to be associated with them!
August 31st, 2006 at 8:03 pm
…and while I’m at it “an accolade” to the Green MP’s Parliamentary Staff as well!
August 31st, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Michael Cullen seems to have been caught on the hop completely by this exchange, obviously trying to remember the details of the vehicles he’s travelled in recently, rather than referring to any sort of prepared info.
Quite laughable that he doesn’t seem to have heard of the Prius, or indeed any of the hybrid vehicles which are fuel-efficient without being sardine tins..
I wonder if he stillknows how a bicycle works?!!
September 1st, 2006 at 10:56 am
Katie:
Exactly. And it’s not as if Ms Fitzsimons was trying to ambush him with a curly supplimentary stacked up behind an inoccuous primary question - not an effective tactic if you’re facing a well-briefed Minister (or proxy, as in this instance) and staff who are good at sniffing out traps.
September 1st, 2006 at 2:05 pm
hi and its not only central govt i recently inquired about the increase in parking wardens and restrictions from the auckland city council. we agreed that stricter parking restrictions would cut down on emissions and congestion from commuters, but that they had not taken into account the emmisions and congestion caused by the addition of 22 new vehicles to their fleet to enforce the regulations. they also told me the public transport system was to ineffeciant for their warden to use as a way of getting about.
cheers
September 1st, 2006 at 2:40 pm
This story reminds me of the recent expose of the lavish and extravagant lifestyle that Al Gore enjoys when he’s not preaching to everyone else about the evils of CO2 emissions:-
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-08-09-gore-green_ x.htm
Pass the sick-bag
September 1st, 2006 at 9:36 pm
It’s a drop in the bucket, but funny to see Cullen caught off guard!
No-one is really going to do anything about CO2 emissions as it means a voluntary cut in your quality of life. Every drop of oil not burned here will be burned in the US or China anyway so why not go hard and enjoy it. It is wishful thinking that anything will change while there is still coal and oil in the ground.
However we may need to plan for embankments and sea walls if the sea level does rise significantly. This is easier than cutting consumption now it seems.
September 1st, 2006 at 9:56 pm
uk_kiwi says:
“However we may need to plan for embankments and sea walls if the sea level does rise significantly. This is easier than cutting consumption now it seems.”
and what “may we need to plan for” when the melting Arctic alters the sea temperatures and the Gulf Stream stops and … ?
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:36 pm
But the gas guzzling cars are essential for government business. After all, would Helen’s motorcade have been able to get to the rugby match on time if she was in a Prius?
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:42 pm
That motorcade is surely going to be an example of the annual-headache-inducing issue…. Bet she wishes now she’d flagged the rugby, and just settled for a quiet swing thru’ Canterbury Museum, and a (later) leisurely flight back to Auckland, bypassing the rugby completely!
I once had a half-share in a very competent HDi deisel turbo station wagon, which had admirable fuel efficiency, but could still go at a respectable rate of knots on the open road (not saying how fast… or where….) I admit I was much younger then; but fuel efficient does not neccessarily equate to slow!
September 4th, 2006 at 10:59 am
C’mon folks, it wasn’t Helen Clark driving fast to get to the Rugby, it was her driver’s (all blokes) who were driving fast and reckoning that they could because they were on a mission. Which she likely tacitly condones as long as she gets where she is going safely.
We may need to plan for wood pellet fired steam cars?
respectfully
BJ
September 4th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Great idea bj …
We could have a design competition for such vehicles on frogblog.
I’d especially enjoy the entries in our own “W. Heath Robinson” category!
September 5th, 2006 at 7:49 am
As I see it New Zealand has three possible paths to follow for its vehicles. Biodiesel, ethanol and steam… I wouldn’t presume to pick a winner, but the most efficient sources of the diesel feedstock are all spoken for. We export animal tallow, and there’s really not enough. The government has mandated biodiesel content for the fuel and the fuel companies are going to IMPORT the stuff to meet that requirement.
There is no production happening in New Zealand (except for one of my mates who is doing it as a hobby, which is relatively inefficient and requires some chemicals also in demand by the makers of illegal drugs).
There’s also not enough of sugar beets, sugar cane, switchgrass or other fuel feedstocks to make a dent in our usage yet. So we’re STILL in the import business with all of them. Maybe that doesn’t have to happen, but it is the way things are today.
As for the steam vehicles, I am still awaiting a house I can afford with a shed I can work in, cause I know enough to do a passable job of building such a thing… but if we could organize a competition at the university level… find some sponsors (the wood pellet manufacturers would be a good starting place), and have a little “race” …. we’d see rather quickly what was possible. I would propose that it not be limited to “pure” steam. The use of steam-electric hybrids should also be permitted.
I don’t foresee that steam is really suitable for the smallest cars, but for larger vehicles it works well enough. There’s pressure-vessel welding and certification to do, and there’s a heck of a lot of engineering refinement involved in shrinking a superheater to the size of a microwave, but there’s a lot of potential as well. A design that could power (and be carried by) something the size of a Hiace would make us energy independent until the sun goes out.
Maybe we could work on steam powered dirigibles
respectfully
BJ