There was a standout event at the National Truck Equipment Association Annual Meeting this past week in Atlanta that got me pretty excited about fleets that are already starting to adopt hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles. The day-long Hybrid Truck and Alternative Fuels Summit featured speakers from government, industry, and public-private alternative energy groups, all talking about the growth they’re seeing in this market, and the excitement was contagious.

The first such Summit, held at last year’s NTEA Show in Indianapolis, was a sell-out, and this year’s event was bigger and better. Whereas last year you might have heard speakers talking about production runs of hybrid bucket trucks for utility fleets in the dozens of units, this year they were mentioning production runs in the thousands, and in the foreseeable future.

One noteable speaker was Rachel Beckhardt, project analyst, corporate partnerships for Environmental Defense, a public-private partnership that promotes environmentally-friendly technology. In her presentation, Beckhardt invited fleet managers to go to www.environmentaldefense.org/hybridincentives for a comprehensive list of financial incentives available to them to help defray the incremental costs of buying hybrid work trucks. My favorite moment came when Beckhardt gave an example of the kind of information available on the website by saying, “New Hampshire has a big pot of money” for fleets purchasing hybrids. This is New Hampshire, folks, one of the smallest states in the nation… Imagine what kind of money is available across the country!

There are big pots of money out there for your fleet, and now you know one new way to find it!

Here in Wisconsin, we’ve had a particularly cold, snowy winter, so it comes as no surprise that a lot of people have been leaving their cars, trucks and SUVs idling to keep warm. But when is enough enough?

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if it’s 10 below out or a perfect 68 degrees: a lot of people will leave their car, truck or SUV idling while they run into the store for a pack of cigarettes, a Coke, a newspaper, whatever. How and why have Americans picked up this disgusting habit? Don’t people make the connection that leaving their Suburban idling at the curb while they buy stamps is a complete waste of gasoline (or diesel fuel)? Do they realize they’re getting exactly zero miles per gallon?

I don’t understand the disconnect. I’m sure they’re good people, and I’m sure at least 60 precent of them want our troops back safely from the Iraq oil fields, so why are they so wasteful with this increasingly scarce and expensive resource? Even if it’s below zero outside, do they really think their car interior is going to get cold in the three minutes it takes them to buy a pack of smokes? Are we really that soft? Are we really that lazy? Do we really care that little about the world around us?

The good news is that the House passed a bill this week that includes a $4,000 tax credit for the purchase of plug-in hybrids, those great new vehicles that can run on all-electric power for upwards of 20 miles before their gas or diesel engines kick in. That credit could be quite a boost to this new technology, which, while exciting, remains expensive. General Motors has been talking for months about putting their plug-in hybrid, the Chevy Volt, into production within the next few years, and a $4,000 tax credit could be just the kick that GM needs for a successful launch.

There’s just one catch: President Bush has vowed to veto the bill, because it reduces tax credits for big oil companies. Next time you wonder why we’re not making any progress in reducing our dependence on imported oil, just take a look at the Bush White House’s record of corporate welfare to petroleum companies. And if you are considering buying a plug-in hybrid but hesitate because the price is too high, just remember the message you’ve been sent from Washington.

I just had the interesting experience of spending half my week with fleet maintenance managers at the Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) Annual Meeting & Expo, and the other half of my week with biodiesel producers, distributors and retailers at the National Biodiesel Congress. I met with a lot of intelligent, knowledgeable people at both events, but at one event there was a whole lot of bad intelligence about the other event. The fleet maintenance managers, it turns out, have some pretty wrongheaded ideas about biodiesel… in fact, some of the things I heard brought to mind Mark Twain’s famous quote: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Well, here’s what some of the fleet maintenance managers at TMC “know for sure”: They know for sure that biodiesel is causing aluminum fuel tanks on their big rigs to rust out from the inside out. They know for sure that there are absolutely NO quality standards for biodiesel. And they know for sure that, from the moment it’s produced to the moment you pump it into your fuel tank, biodiesel does not pass through a single filter.

After hearing these claims being made by worried fleet maintenance managers at TMC, I had a chance to ask some biodiesel experts at the Biodiesel Congress to respond. One expert did admit that, if you made your own biodiesel at home from questionable feedstock and with absolutely no quality control, you could rot out your fuel tank from the inside out. But then, you could also fill your tank with regular diesel fuel that happens to have water contamination, and you’d have the same result.

In response to the other claims being made about biodiesel at the TMC meeting, the biodiesel experts I talked to simply shook their heads in disbelief and said “We have a lot of work to do.” Now, in all fairness, there were a few fleet maintenance managers at TMC who spoke up in defense of biodiesel, but they were few and far between. The sad fact is that many fleets will not go near biodiesel, because they have bad information. Will they be willing to consider the other side of the story? Maybe, but as one TMC fleet guy told me, “Maybe the biodiesel folks should come and talk to us and hear what’s really going on out there.”

Did you read this financial news this week?

ITEM: Royal Dutch Shell posts record profit of $27.6 billion for 2007.

ITEM: Exxon Mobil posts profit of $39.5 billion for 2007, the largest annual profit in US history.

How much are you paying for gas these days? Oh yeah, about $3 a gallon, right? A little more than that for diesel, maybe? And all the while, the big oil companies beg for more tax breaks and special protection from Washington.

Have you had enough?