The Nat Gas Act of 2011

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I have long supported the idea of shifting vehicles in the USA to the use of natural gas rather than gasoline. Today, there a bill was introduced in Congress to help achieve this goal. it is the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions act of 2011 (with the acronym of NATGAS). While the name of the bill may be silly, the content is not. The bill provides for a 5 year tax credit of up to 80% of the excess cost of buying a nat gas vehicle subject to certain maximum amounts; a 50 cent per gallon equivalent fuel tax credit, and infrastructure credit of 50% up to $100,000 for the cost of installing nat gas filing stations, a $2000 tax credit for the cost of installing a home filling facility for nat gas, and a final tax credit to the manufacturer of the nat gas vehicles. While all of this sounds like a lot of tax credits, the law presents a great way for the government to provide the impetus for a switch from gasoline to nat gas to power a big chunk of the American vehicle fleet. It is also a great way to promote economic growth in the USA. For each gallon equivalent of natural gas used to run a vehicle, the consumer will save over $3.00 and that money will stay in this country rather than sending it abroad to the pay for oil. A switch of 1 million cars that use 600 gallons of gasoline each year will inject an additional 2 billion dollars into the economy each year that they remain in use. As the number of nat gas vehicles rise, the amount of this benefit to the economy will also rise. If a quarter of the US Vehicle fleet switched to natural gas, there would be a savings of about $70 billion each year. In addition, with that demand for oil taken out of the world market, the price for oil may well decline.

The logic of the NAT GAS bill is clear. It also has bipartisan support. It is sponsored by two representatives from each party. Now they just have to convince Obama that he needs to get behind this effort.