INDIAN ISLAND, Penobscot Indian Nation – The Penobscot Indian Nation took four big strides toward cleaner air and reducing its fuel budget last month with the purchase of a fleet of three gas-and-electric Toyota Highlanders and a Toyota Camry.

The new vehicles will be used by the nation’s public safety department and air quality division of its Department of Natural Resources.

“We have new space ships here,” Bill Thompson, the council’s vice chief and program manager of the air quality program, joked about the sleek new vehicles. Two of the Highlanders and the Camry are silver; the third Highlander is pearl colored. The department names and logos ornament the sides of the cars.

The vehicles run on batteries and travel up to 25 miles per hour, then the gas engine kicks in. And every time a driver hits the brakes, the battery is recharged, Thompson said. “You never have to plug them in.”

Police Chief Robert Bryant said the public safety vehicles will be used as police cruisers.

“Our speed limit on the island is 20 miles per hour so realistically 99 percent of the time the vehicles will be operating in the electric mode. We’ll see a huge savings on fuel, but also a huge reduction in what our cruisers are giving off in emissions.”

Bryant estimated the new hybrids, which get 40 miles per gallon, will save about 75 percent in fuel costs. The cars operate almost silently and he said the transition from electric to gas is imperceptible.

The four vehicles cost around $125,000, including radios, sirens, lights, cages and other equipment, and were purchased with federal grants. Funding for the police cruisers came from the Department of Justice and the BIA, while funding for the air quality car was provided by the U.S. Environmental Agency.

“One of the big selling points on these grants was the collaborations between the air quality and law enforcement departments. This is probably the first nation in Indian country that has all hybrid vehicles,” Thompson said.

Last year the air quality division purchased a mercury deposition collector, which is lodged on a mountain in the Carrabasett Valley as part of an EPA air quality monitoring program.

Photo courtesy Penobscot Indian Nation Penobscot Vice Chief Bill Thompson (left) and Police Chief Robert Bryant stand in front of the nations new fleet of four hybrid vehicles purchased with federal grants. The police department will use two of the Toyota Highlanders and the Toyota Camry, while the Department of Natural Resources’ Air Quality division will use the third Highlander.

Thompson said he often travels the six-hour roundtrip to the site for meetings with other environmental officials.

“The vehicle we’ve been using the past eight years turned the corner and became a lemon. It was a big V-8 truck. If you can imagine Penobscot showing up for an air quality meeting in that big gas guzzler – well, it didn’t look good.”

The new fleet is all part of the tribe’s initiative to go green, Chief Kirk Francis said.

“On the leadership side, we’re really focusing on doing everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint and also get into the carbon offset arena. We’re using our forested lands right now in the evaluation process for that.”

Francis is the chair of the executive committee of the National Tribal Environmental Council, a nonprofit multi-tribal organization that formed in 1991 that works with and assists American Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages in the protection and preservation of tribal environments.

The nation has a number of environmentally sustainable projects underway, including a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design housing development of eight units.

“It’s part of an ongoing effort, not only to talk about sustainability being our way of life, but also implementing real things that show examples in that arena,” Francis said. “We are trying to be leaders and lead by example.”

The new hybrids replace Chevy Impalas and a Ford truck that will be sold in a bid process at auction. The proceeds will be put back into the nation’s budget.