Casey Bill Provides Tax Breaks For Natural Gas-Fueled Cars

Demo­c­ra­tic U.S. Sen­a­tor Bob Casey has intro­duced a new bill aimed at grow­ing the mar­ket for nat­ural gas-fueled vehicles.

The leg­is­la­tion would cre­ate tax incen­tives  — both rebates and cred­its — for peo­ple who buy the cars.

Casey, who’s run­ning for reelec­tion this year, has spon­sored other nat­ural gas-related bills in the past: he’s one of the authors of leg­is­la­tion requir­ing drillers to dis­close what chem­i­cals they use dur­ing hydraulic frac­tur­ing.

Here’s the press release Casey’s office sent out to reporters:

Wash­ing­ton, DC – U.S. Sen­a­tor Bob Casey (D-PA) today unveiled leg­is­la­tion to speed the tran­si­tion to nat­ural gas as a vehi­cle fuel to cre­ate jobs in Penn­syl­va­nia and reduce our depen­dence on for­eign oil.

“Pennsylvania’s nat­ural gas reserves offer great poten­tial for jobs and eco­nomic progress for the region,” said Sen­a­tor Casey. “My leg­is­la­tion would help busi­nesses in a vari­ety of indus­tries grow expand and sus­tain much-needed eco­nomic growth.”

As oil prices rise, more com­pa­nies, munic­i­pal­i­ties and con­sumers are already switch­ing to vehi­cles run­ning on nat­ural gas. How­ever, the cost of con­vert­ing exist­ing vehi­cles to run on nat­ural gas or buy­ing new vehi­cles can be prohibitive.

That is why Sen­a­tor Casey is intro­duc­ing the Nat­ural Gas Energy and Alter­na­tive Rewards (NGEAR) Act to speed the tran­si­tion to nat­ural gas fueled vehi­cles. This tar­geted leg­is­la­tion will cre­ate a new rebate pro­gram for the pur­chase of nat­ural gas buses and extend tax cred­its for nat­ural gas fill­ing sta­tions and vehi­cle fuel.

Sen­a­tor Casey’s NGEAR Act will reduce costs for busi­nesses and munic­i­pal­i­ties in the short-run and lead to long-term cost savings.

The nat­ural gas indus­try is cre­at­ing jobs and sup­port­ing eco­nomic devel­op­ment in Penn­syl­va­nia, and Sen­a­tor Casey’s leg­is­la­tion will help the indus­try con­tinue to grow.

Specif­i­cally, the NGEAR Act would:

• Estab­lish a rebate of 30%, up to $15,000, for the pur­chase of nat­ural gas school and tran­sit buses;

• Extend the Alter­na­tive Fuel Tax Credit of $0.50 a gal­lon  for the retail sale of nat­ural gas fuel for every­one who uses it to power vehi­cles through 2016; and,

• Extend a tax credit for installing com­mer­cial nat­ural gas refu­el­ing infra­struc­ture through 2016, total­ing 30% of the sys­tem, up to $30,000.