Fairfax County Spends $2.6 Million On Gas In April

With gas prices hovering at or above $4, and uncertainty about where they are headed, what sort of impact gas prices does Fairfax County have on their fuel budget and fleet of vehicles?

After all, the county is 407 square miles and sees 5,765 county vehicles driving its roadways.

Public Information Officer Ellen O'Brien said the county used 797,234 gallons of gas, both unleaded and diesel, in April. That averages to about 138 gallons of gas per vehicle each month.

(Of its 5,765 vehicles, 245 of them are Fairfax Connector buses, 46 FASTRAN buses and 1,527 school buses.)

That means the county's gas bill last month was $2,652,269. And that was a deal: The county pays 50 to 70 cents a gallon less than the average consumer.

The county buys fuel through a contract available through the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Fuel prices are based on a market average compiled by Oil Price Information Service and are updated weekly. The price that Fairfax County pays is typically 12 to 20 cents per gallon lower than local retail prices, before fuel taxes. The county also does not pay highway fuel taxes of $0.378 per gallon on gasoline and $0.438 per gallon on diesel fuel.

Fairfax County's net prices, therefore, usually run 50 to 70 cents per gallon less than the posted prices at local gas stations.

Month

Gallons/ Unleaded

Cost

Gallons/  Diesel

Cost

January 2011

188,333

$474,952

599,433

$1,651,535

February 2011

207,620

$528,054

591,640

$1,697,384

March 2011

253,944

$736,945

760,403

$2,424,760

April 2011

208,881

$690,697

588,353

$1,961,572

Fairfax County paid an average cost per gallon of unleaded gasoline that ranged from $2.52 in January to $3.30 in April.  The average cost per gallon of diesel fuel rose from $2.76 to $3.33 in April. Fuel prices are updated weekly.

Prices for the week are: Unleaded: $3.28 Diesel: $3.12.