By Scott Brady
Environmentally safe vehicles are generating interest for people lookihng to save money and protect the environment.
'President Bush announced a multi-billion dollar tax cut for people who buy hybrid cars, so there has been a rush on these vehicles, and the whole state is out of them right now,' said Bill Council, general sales manager for Honda of Orem.
'Honda builds their cars with ultra low emissions for all 50 states,' Council said. 'They are the first cars manufactured to do so.'
Council said if you were to buy a top of the line Honda Civic you would pay about $18,000, but the new Honda Insight, a hybrid car, costs about $20,000.
'You don''t have the choice of gas or electric - it''s a hybrid car that runs off gasoline, and when it is required, the electric feature supplements the power,' he said. 'That''s how it gets 68 to 70 miles to the gallon.'
Salt Lake City will receive $275,000 in Department of Education grants for alternative fuel vehicles this year.
Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City traded his SUV for a Honda Civic, which will use the clean burning natural gas.
Council said Honda is trying to meet the strict standards the government wants car manufacturers to meet as far as emissions go.
'People are going to see the industry change each and every year in answer to energy crisis,' he said.
Bob Stockwell, chief administrative officer for Provo City, said the city tried natural gas vehicles a few years ago and found them to be unreliable.
'The infrastructure for supplying natural gas for vehicles has yet to develop along the Wasatch front,' he said. 'At this point we haven''t seen anything on the horizon that says that it''s a viable alternative.'
According to the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas, fuel-efficient vehicles are an effective means of mitigating air and noise pollution, greenhouse gases, and over-reliance on petroleum by the transportation sector.
Forrest Humble, 23, a junior from Mesa, Arizona, majoring in mechanical engineering owns a truck powered by natural gas.
He purchased the truck from a dealership in Arizona that offered a 40 percent cut off the regular price and a free natural gas conversion, if the buyer was willing to make the conversion to natural gas fuel.
'The change to natural gas has been great for me - I only pay $1.00 per gallon for natural gas,' Humble said. 'The state allows me to drive in the car pool lane by myself because I have the fuel-efficient car.'
However, the price of natural gas has risen 30 cents since Humble started using his car.
'Price changes don''t bother me too much. If natural-gas prices rise too high, my truck has the capability of switching back to unleaded gasoline,' he said.