Faster growth in the use of natural
gas as a transportation fuel would provide increased energy
security, cleaner air, less greenhouse gas emissions, and more
U.S. jobs, the president of NGVAmerica told the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee.
Richard Kolodziej, president of NGVAmerica,
said Congress should help make that happen. He urged the
Senators to establish transportation policies that support
natural gas as a transportation fuel.
Kolodziej, who testified before the
Committee’s hearing on “Opportunities to Improve Energy Security
and the Environment through Transportation Policy,” said that
the most effective immediate action Congress could take was
passing the “New Alternative to Give Americans Solutions” (NAT
GAS) Act (S. 1408).
Passage of the NAT GAS Act would extend
and expand the existing federal financial incentives for buying
and using natural gas vehicles. This would be especially
important for the high fuel-use vehicle fleets, such as trash
trucks, transit buses, short-haul 18-wheelers, school buses,
urban delivery vehicles, and shuttles of all kinds.
“While there are many options to displace
gasoline in light-duty vehicles,” Kolodziej said, “there are
very few options to displace diesel in heavier vehicles. Of
those options, natural gas can make the biggest impact fastest.”
With appropriate federal policy support,
NGVs could be displacing 10 billion gallons of diesel and
gasoline within 15 years, says Kolodziej. And this would
have significant environmental benefits.
“For example, the California Air Resources
Board recently concluded that on a well-to-wheels basis, NGVs
produce 22 percent less greenhouse gases than comparable diesel
vehicles and 29 percent less than comparable gasoline vehicles,”
he told the committee. “EPA’s announcement that it is
considering further tightening of the national ozone standards
means that more cities and counties than ever will be looking
for economic alternatives for ozone reduction, and that will
mean more NGVs.”
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