Senator Casey Introduces Bill to Support Natural Gas Powered Vehicles

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

July 25, 2012 | 4:49 PM

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Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) speaks on an episode of "Meet the Press," April, 2008.

Senator Bob Casey has introduced a bill aimed at increasing demand for natural gas. The STATE Natural Gas Act would create a competitive grant process through the Department of Energy to fund public and private investments in natural gas vehicles and infrastructure.
StateImpact Pennsylvania recently reported on the challenges to natural gas vehicle development, including the lack of natural gas fueling stations. The state has just 11 public fueling stations for natural gas vehicles.
Casey’s bill would encourage states to use the grants for tax breaks, rebates or other financial incentives to develop the infrastructure for compressed natural gas. He says natural gas powered vehicles make up less than a tenth of one percent, of all the vehicles on the road.
Sen. Casey also introduced the NGEAR Act, which would create rebates for natural gas buses and tax credits for natural gas filling stations.
Casey has been one of the most vocal critics when it comes to the “Halliburton Loophole,” which exempts natural gas drilling companies from publicizing the chemicals used in the fracking process. He introduced the FRACK Act, which would close that loophole. Casey says he hasn’t abandoned the FRACK Act, but right now, there’s no chance Congress would pass it. He says the STATE Act, however, should not run into the same partisan politics.
The Corbett Administration recently announced its plan to spend $20 million to expand the use of natural gas powered vehicles by using funds from the Impact Fee.