Public Safety Commissioner Robert Flowers drove the same distance in his state vehicle and spent $3,500 on fuel.

The $1,100 difference: Brough tools around the state in a Chevy Impala, averaging 26 miles per gallon. And Flowers commands the state's highways in a Dodge Durango, getting about 19 mpg.

Nearly half the state's 7,300-vehicle fleet is made up of pickups and SUVs. In contrast, just one in 10 of Utah's car pool is an alternative-fuel vehicle. Like Flowers, many state executives and all of Utah's statewide elected officeholders have chosen to drive publicly financed sport utility vehicles - both for safety and for status.

But as oil prices continue to rise, some question the wisdom of driving gas-guzzling vehicles on the taxpayers' dime.

"It's very frustrating for someone like me," said Beverly Miller, the Utah Clean Cities coordinator who has prodded state managers to buy alternative-fuel vehicles for years. "We're out of balance here. We're not going to solve these problems if we don't change the way we do things."

In Utah state government, however, it's business as usual.

A review of state fleet records shows the vast majority of state employees who commute in taxpayer-funded vehicles drive cars - a lot of Crown Victorias, two Ford Mustangs and a Chevy Camaro, among them. Two Agriculture Department workers are authorized to drive semi trucks home, and a Department of Transportation employee can drive a "bucket truck" to and from work. Of 955 assigned state vehicles, 64 are SUVs.

State executives, on the other hand, love their SUVs. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman travel in black Chevy Suburbans. So does Lieutenant Gov. Gary Herbert. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff drives a Dodge Durango. Auditor Auston Johnson and Treasurer Ed Alter prefer Ford Explorers.

No state executives picked a compact car, but Corrections Director Scott Carver deliberately selected a Chevy Impala for its size and rear-wheel drive. "I just like a little smaller vehicle," Carver said.

All state elected officials justify their somewhat inefficient transportation as a requirement of their jobs. "I felt it was basically what I needed," said Shurtleff.

Johnson picked an Explorer for his trips to meet with local government officials because it makes him feel more secure. "I drive all over the state throughout the year," he said. "I would rather have that kind of vehicle."

However necessary the larger cars are, a comparison of their gas mileage shows the cost to taxpayers. Security officers taking the first lady to and from state events get the worst gas mileage of anyone - about 10 miles to the gallon, according to a Salt Lake Tribune analysis of state executives' vehicle and gas use. Of those reviewed, Brough gets the best gas mileage.

Shurtleff likes to note his Durango is a cheaper SUV. But it also ranks second on the Union of Concerned Scientists' list of the most expensive vehicles to fuel. The governor's Suburban ranks fourth. And National Guard Adjutant General Brian Tarbet's state-financed Ford Expedition ranks third.

State fuel costs have soared with rising gas prices, but that hasn't dampened useage. Last month, state workers spent $1.1 million in tax funds on nearly 448,000 gallons of fuel, according to government records. During the same period last year, they spent $677,835 on about 431,000 gallons.

While other states have encouraged conservation, Utah leaders have remained largely silent on the topic.

Four governors - in New Mexico, Maine, Minnesota and Gov. Jeb Bush in Florida - are giving up their gas-slurping SUVs in a bid to inspire citizens to conserve energy in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to stateline.org, an on-line newsletter published by the Pew Research Center. Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher directed his Cabinet members to limit business-related travel to "essential or urgent" matters and to give up their state vehicles.

Huntsman, meantime, is encouraging state workers to carpool and ride public transit. And the governor has asked Energy Adviser Laura Nelson to review ways to make state government more efficient, including state vehicle policies.

"I would hope when possible people would be responsible and choose the most efficient vehicle," she said.

Huntsman was given little choice in his transportation. Like his two predecessors, Olene Walker and Mike Leavitt, he rides in a Suburban equipped with police radios, body armor and guns. The first lady inherited Walker's Suburban with 26,000 miles on it.

"I'd ride a motorcycle or my mountain bike if I could," Huntsman said. "But there are security procedures. They're sticklers about it."

Utah Highway Patrol Capt. Alan Workman said there are good reasons for the governor to ride in a big vehicle high off the ground. The snowstorms of 1993 stranded Leavitt at his east-side Salt Lake City home. And after the August 2001 tornado ripped through Salt Lake City, Leavitt and his emergency management team could not drive over fallen tree limbs to get to the Capitol. They parked their car and made the trek.

"It was a little embarrassing," Workman said.

Since then, Utah's governors have traveled in SUVs.

Top officials have more leeway. When they are appointed or elected, a select group of state executives are given $23,500 to buy a car - enough to buy a Ford Crown Victoria, the state's standard full-size sedan. Their departments make up the difference out of their budgets when the executive chooses an SUV - an average of about $400 for the Explorer. Each car is replaced when it reaches 90,000 miles.

Following federal mandates, by 2005, fully 75 percent of state cars were supposed to use alternative fuels such as natural gas, propane or ethanol. State fleet managers bought the cars, but workers balked at driving them, figuring the technology was confusing, the cars were gutless or the gas was too inconvenient to find, Clean Cities' Miller said.

Many of those alternative-fuel cars have been sold and replaced with "flex-fuel" vehicles equipped with metal tanks in the trunk for storing ethanol. Nothing in the federal legislation required states to actually use the other fuels, so many state workers are driving cars equipped to use alternative fuel but are filling up with conventional gasoline, Miller said. The 2005 rewrite of the Energy Policy Act will require state government workers to actually fill their cars with alternative fuels. Miller hopes that will force state executives and employees to consider fuel economy.

"It's very difficult for mid-level management to move a program for alternative fuel vehicles when there's resistance at the bottom and a lack of interest at the top," said Miller. "There's plenty of responsibility to go around."