After meeting with the CEOs of major automobile manufacturers on Monday, President Bush spent Tuesday taking a look at alternative fuel vehicles used by the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

According to a White House fact sheet, the U.S. Postal Service has the “largest alternative fuel vehicle fleet in the world. Almost 13 percent of the 289,000 vehicle fleet are alternative fuel vehicles such as hybrids, biodiesel, compressed natural gas, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.”

UPS operates the largest private alternative fuel fleet in its industry, using more than 1,500 compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, hydrogen fuel cell, and hybrid vehicles. Fed-Ex and the Washington Metro are using or investing in hybrid-electric diesel trucks and buses.

They note that large fleet operators like these are participating in the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Program, which works through a network of more than 80 volunteer coalitions to promote alternative fuels and vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrid vehicles, and idle reduction.

Meanwhile, an Associated Press report criticized the president for “talking, for two days in a row, about converting switchgrass and wood chips into ethanol,” instead of focusing on the congressional standoffs over Iraq and controversy over the firings of US attorney generals.