Ulster County’s move to green vehicles

Ulster County is on target meet the goal of having 20% of vehicles that the county operates in the “green” category by 2025, emitting reduced greenhouse gases when compared with standard vehicles. County Executive Jen Metzger has released the county’s 2023 Green Fleet Annual Report showing that at the end of 2023 there were a total of 481 vehicles in the Ulster County fleet. In 2023, 50 vehicles were put into service, with 52 retired. Of the 50, 22 vehicles met green criteria. At the end of the year, 16.6% of the fleet was in the green category.

“We are excited to see that we are on track to reach our 2025 green fleet target and reduce harmful emissions, but we need to go even further,” Metzger said. “Beyond replacing fleet vehicles at the end of their useful life with zero-emissions alternatives, we must also look to reduce the size of the fleet and right-size vehicle purchases to department needs.”

County departments with the largest number of fleet vehicles include the DPW/Highway Department with 30.6% (147 vehicles), the Sheriff’s Office with 21% (101 vehicles), and Ulster County Area Transit with 9.1% (44 vehicles).

In August, Metzger signed into law major changes to the county’s vehicle purchasing policy that committed the county to speed up the transition to a zero-emissions fleet. The new legislation, that was unanimously passed by the County Legislature, amended the county’s 2015 Green Fleet Policy to make zero-emissions vehicles the default purchase where possible and require that 100% of all county-owned passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks be zero-emissions by 2035. The legislation also required that other vehicle classes shift to zero-emissions, including the transit fleet and non-road equipment by 2035 and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2040. There is room for the targets slipping since the legislation says that the switch to zero-emissions is to take place where feasible.

The report calls for the county to continue to prioritize purchasing and leasing electric vehicles over other vehicle types. It calls for creation of a master plan to support a strategic build-out of electric vehicle charging stations at county facilities. The plan would be expected to identify suitable locations for chargers that also can be used by the public. The plan also is supposed to figure out operating costs and potential funding sources for the build-out.

The report calls for the county to plan for ways to recharge electric vehicles in event of power outages. It says the county should look at the possibility of installing electric generators, battery systems and solar panels as ways to create the electricity that would be needed to keep electric vehicles moving when there are power failures.