Natural gas transportation bill coming to vote

WASHINGTON - JULY 08: BP Capital Management C...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Houston Chronicle:

After spending nearly three years and more than $80 million of his own money to tout his energy plan, T. Boone Pickens says he's finally about to have something to show for his efforts.

Next week, a natural gas bill he has strongly backed is expected to be introduced again in Congress. And this time, the billionaire Texas oilman said, it has the votes the pass.

"I think we got the deal done," Pickens told reporters after a luncheon speech Tuesday at the Petroleum Club of Houston, hosted by the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers and Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists. "I think we'll get it through the House before the summer recess."

The measure, called the NAT GAS Act, aims to boost use of natural gas as a fuel in the transportation sector. Lasting five years, it would provide vehicle tax credits to buyers of vehicles powered by natural gas, giving automakers greater incentive to build them.

The legislation is scheduled to be introduced on April 6, confirmed a spokesman for its author, U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla. Co-sponsors include Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla.; Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands; and John Larson, D-Conn.

"With our vast domestic natural gas supply, gas prices approaching $4 to $5 per gallon and given major instability in the Middle East, I think members of Congress are starting to look to natural gas vehicles as the bridge fuel we need to lessen our dependence on foreign oil," Sullivan said in a statement provided by the spokesman.

The legislation could come up in a speech President Barack Obama is giving today on domestic energy policy. But it likely would be a measured embrace, as the administration continues to study possible environmental impacts of the key natural gas extraction method called hydraulic fracturing.

About 110,000 natural gas vehicles are on U.S. roads today, and more than 12 million are in use worldwide, according to the Natural Gas Vehicles for America, a Washington trade group.

Pickens said his priority is getting heavy vehicles like garbage trucks and city buses, which account for much petroleum use in the U.S., to convert to natural gas. Private passenger cars and trucks are a longer-range goal.

...
I think 18 wheelers should also be a target for gas suppliers. It would substantially reduce the amount of diesel being burned as fuel.  We should also be ready to promote natural gas conversion of vehicles on the road already.

I think the fracking opposition is most a bad faith effort by the anti energy left which opposes all forms of energy and looks for any excuse to drive up the cost of energy. Their real concern is that because of fracking, natural gas will be both cheap and abundant.
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