The good folks at sustainablog brought a green vehicles initiative from the The State of New York to our attention. Governor Pataki and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno announced a new program to convert the state fleet to plug-in hybrids. The pilot program will spend $10 million to retrofit 600 vehicles to be able to charge their batteries by pluggin' in to the grid.

And for all those nay-sayers, we have a a nifty alternative fuels comparison chart (PDF), showing how much cheaper and cleaner grid power is than gasoline engine generated power.

 

"Plug-in hybrid vehicles can be plugged into the electric grid – such as a normal 120 volt household outlet - to boost mileage. This will allow the vehicles to operate on emissions-free battery power, reducing the amount of fuel utilized and significantly decreasing the release of harmful pollutants, including greenhouse gases. Since the utility grid has lower demand during overnight hours, the recharging of plug-ins would not add to the peak load."

We thought maybe they'd just want to be the first ones to get their hands on the Tesla Roadster we seem to be so fond of here.

via sustainablog