Responding to President Obama’s January 26 announcement of a four-point plan to aggressively promote natural gas as a vehicle fuel, Richard Kolodziej, president of NGVAmerica, said: This is progress. We’ve never gotten this level of support for natural gas as a vehicle fuel from any administration in the past.” Kolodziej made his comments January 26 during World LNG Fuels 2012 in Houston TX.
He added: “We commend the President for recognizing the very real and immediate benefit of using domestic natural gas to refuel America’s trucks and cars. Accelerating the use of natural gas vehicles will help this country become more energy independent, lower its transportation costs, and provide a much needed boost to the economy because of the abundant domestic supply that exists right here in the United States.”
In remarks at a UPS facility in Las Vegas NV, the President called for new tax incentives to help companies buy more clean natural gas-fueled trucks. He also encouraged transit fleets to purchase natural gas buses and called for the federal fleet to use its purchasing power to help lead the way. The Las Vegas event came just days after Obama called for more use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel in his State of the Union address.
The President said his administration will continue to work with the private sector to ensure the vehicles have places to refuel, developing five natural gas corridors along the nation’s highways. “These are highways that [will] have natural gas fueling stations between cities--just like the one the folks at UPS, South Coast Air, and Clean Energy Fuels are opening today between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City,” he said.
The President also said he will ask Energy Secretary Steven Chu to launch a new competition to encourage the country’s scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to discover new breakthroughs for natural gas vehicles.
The President’s remarks should be welcome news to those businesses and groups that have supported adoption of the NAT GAS Act (HR 1380 and S 1863), legislation introduced in both Houses of Congress and that would provide incentives for natural gas in vehicles. “We hope Congress and the President can work together to get this legislation enacted as soon as possible,” said Kolodziej.