Title: Transitioning the Federal Government's Conventionally Fueled
Fleet to Zero Emission Vehicles

Description: Last December, President Biden called on the federal
government to transition its fleet of more than 600,000 non-military
cars, trucks, busses and other vehicles from conventional fuels to
electricity by 2035. What steps have been taken so far? We'll find out
more from GAO's Catina Latham.

Related GAO Work: GAO-23-105635, Federal Vehicle Fleets: Observations on
the Transition to Electric Vehicles 

Released: October 2022

[Music]

[Catina Latham:] As agencies begin to purchase these vehicles, the
biggest emphasis will need to be on budgeting for those expenses.

[Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for
news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm
your host, Holly Hobbs. Last December, President Biden called on the
federal government to transition to sustainable energy sources. As part
of this, the federal fleet of over 600,000 non-military cars, trucks,
busses and other vehicles would transition from conventional fuels to
electricity by 2035. So, what steps are agencies taking to make this
transition and will they meet their goal? Today, we'll find out more
from Catina Latham, an expert on federal real property. Thanks for
joining us.

[Catina Latham] Thank you for having me.

[Holly Hobbs:] So, Catina, do we think that federal agencies will be
able to meet this 2035 goal as it stands now?

[Catina Latham] Well, federal agencies do have the potential to meet
this goal. And what that going to require from the agencies is shifting
how they purchase vehicles, what types of vehicles that they purchase,
and even how they manage those vehicles. Thinking about just that shift
in their perceptions, that's what's really going to be needed to meet
this goal.

[Holly Hobbs:] And it's been about ten months since the president's
executive order. Have agencies taken any steps towards this goal?

[Catina Latham] Agencies certainly have started. They're assessing their
fleet, their facilities. And they are making plans for this transition.
Agencies have increased their orders of electric vehicles compared to
previous years. Today, there are about 380,000 vehicles or so across the
federal government that are affected by this order. How many of those
today are zero emission? That's only about 1,600. So, the agencies are
going to need a total of about 260,000 vehicles, and it's going to be a
wide range of vehicles that are needed. In looking at our data,
typically agencies purchase about 30,000 vehicles a year. It's still
very early in the process. And this type of reform, it's just going to
have to be carefully managed.

[Holly Hobbs:] So, here at GAO, we're mostly in an urban setting, and we
have a couple of government-owned vans that take our staff to, for
example, Capitol Hill or agencies for interviews. But what are some of
the other ways federal agencies use government-owned vehicles?

[Catina Latham] So, that was one of the fascinating things about doing
this work, is just learning what the agencies use their vehicles for in
general. For example, we talked with the Forest Service. And of course
they need vehicles to go out and address forest fires, but they also
need vehicles to go around and do surveillance of the ground. So, the
Forest Service may need pickup trucks. 

[Holly Hobbs:] And you kind of hinted at some of the challenges the
federal government faces─ like charging stations and potentially large
upfront costs. It seems like the federal government might also face some
of the challenges in making this transition that the public does. 

[Catina Latham] Absolutely. They will have those higher upfront costs.
But in addition to that will be vehicle availability and also just
supply shortages overall. If you've tried to buy electric car recently,
then you've probably experienced some of those things. Thinking about
what we're dealing with in general, in society, those are going to be
some of the same things that the federal government is facing as it's
purchasing electric vehicles. Some vehicles just are not available at
this time. Those things will change too. Just optimistically thinking,
even currently the Ford F-150 lightning, for example, it's on the market
and agencies have started submitting those orders. So they're mitigating
some of these challenges today. But certainly they're facing the same
challenges we would as consumers in buying electric vehicles.

[Holly Hobbs:] What about saving money? We've all seen gas prices
fluctuate in the last year. Could this save the government money?

[Catina Latham] Well, some of those upfront costs, they will be
recovered over time with lower maintenance and fuel costs, of course.
But as agencies begin to purchase more and more of these vehicles, as
well as the infrastructure, I think the biggest emphasis will need to be
on budgeting for those expenses. For example, the infrastructure costs,
they can vary greatly. And if they put time into thinking about how
they're going to budget for a particular project, for adding vehicles to
the location, for example, the speed of the charging units that's
needed, just factoring in all those opportunity costs that they can take
advantage of, then that will help them reap the greater benefits down
the line.

{MUSIC}

[Holly Hobbs:] So Catina just told us that federal agencies have already
taken some steps toward transitioning to zero emission vehicles, but
that planning will be important as they consider the range of upfront
costs and the needs to make this change. So Catina, what other work have
we done on this topic and what future work do we have planned?

[Catina Latham] Well, for the future and actually we're currently doing
this work now we're looking at the instructions that the agencies
received to help them meet the requirements from the executive order. We
wanted to see what steps the agencies are taking. And we want to just
know what assistance they are receiving in meeting those goals. Another
report that we have is specific to the Postal Service. We're looking at
how they're conducting their cost estimates and analysis for this next
generation of delivery vehicles. And then how those analysis can help
them decide when should they purchase a conventional vehicle compared to
an electric vehicle.

[Holly Hobbs:] And last question, what's the bottom line of this report?

[Catina Latham] The bottom line is federal fleets have the potential to
transition to electric vehicles. The significant thing about this is
that this is a transformation for the federal government. It remains to
be seen if agencies will be able to make that transition to actually
make this happen.

[Holly Hobbs:] That was Catina Latham talking about GAO's recent review
of federal efforts to transition government vehicles to zero emissions.
Thanks for your time, Catina.

[Catina Latham] Thank you.

[Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or
wherever you listen and make sure to leave a rating and review to let
others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional
watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at
GAO.gov.