06-30-09 by dugan
I choked on my black-bean enchilada when an e-mail alert popped up about a new bill in the Senate. Oklahoma oil and natural gas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who failed miserably last year at picking Californians’ pockets, is now reaching for the wallets of all Americans. Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and James Inhofe of Oklahoma have introduced a bill to put federal subsidies for natural gas-fueled vehicles on steroids, shelling out billions in tax credits and subsidies for the benefit of Pickens’ major product: natural gas vehicle fuel. It’s a ripoff and a boondoggle cloaked in greenwash.
The "Fueling America Act," S.1350, extends federal credits for natural gas vehicles and fueling stations through 2014, and nearly doubles the amounts of those credits, to about $8,000 for a car and up to $65,000 for a heavy truck. It also would pay for up to 50% of the cost of fueling stations for natural gas or liquefied natural gas (LNG) used in vehicles, up to $50,000 for each property (even if it has only one pump). That’s money straight into Pickens’ pocket. There’s no limit on the credits, which would easily total tens of billions of dollars over 5 years. Just the administration of the federal program is budgeted at over half a billion bucks.
As I’ve said before, natural gas fuel has its place, particularly for urban bus systems and short-haul trucks with a central fuel yard. It emits less pollutants than gasoline, though nearly the same amount of greenhouse gases. But as a general fuel, especially for family passenger cars and light trucks, it’s pointless and economically damaging.
Compressed or liquefied natural gas, if widely used in vehicles, would jack up the price of natural gas (increasing consumers’ electric bills) and force bigger imports of dirtier, more expensive, highly explosive LNG. The CNG "gas tanks" are twice the size of regular gas tanks and more than twice as heavy, but only hold enough to take a car about 200 miles before refueling. The fueling equipment is expensive and complex, needing a heavy locking valve just to be marginally safe. Find out more about it at Consumer Watchdog’s "Road to Cleaner and Cheaper," a handbook that grades the greenness and cost of advanced fuels and vehicles.
Here’s some of what we said about Picken’s ballot proposition in California last year:
It’s bad enough that Proposition 10 would transfer billions of
dollars from California taxpayers to the vanity project–and the
personal wallet–of a Texas natural-gas billionaire. Even worse,
Proposition 10 would hand out huge subsidies for vehicles that run on
natural gas, in ways that would undercut other clean vehicles that
build energy independence. It would also raise our utility bills, no
matter what T. Boone Pickens claims.Proposition 10’s fat subsidies disfavor hybrid and plug-in hybrid
vehicles. Proposition 10 excludes flex-fuel and biofuel vehicles. Its
lavish tax credits are meant almost entirely for vehicles that run on
natural gas, the fossil fuel most dear to T. Boone Pickens heart and
livelihood.Natural gas vehicles are not as good as hybrids at reducing global
warming emissions. They’re even worse in comparison to biodiesel
engines or plug-in hybrids.Prop 10 doesn’t care. It would pay credits of $10,000 to $50,000 for
natural gas vehicles. The credits would have to be used over just five
years. The result would be a surge in natural gas consumption, well
beyond any reduction in natural gas used by utilities.The price of natural gas would go up. So would consumers’ utility
bills. More consumption always leads to a higher price. At the same
time, taxpayers will be paying off Proposition 10 for 30 years, long
after the vehicles it subsidizes go to the junkyard–if they’re even in
California.
Pickens spent nearly $20 million on that losing ballot measure in California. Getting a bill through Congress might cost far less, especially because major oil companies favor it–they produce and import lots of natural gas. Defeating the bill will be easier if the mainstream media–and even the Sierra Club–aren’t sucked in the way they were in California.
If this big cheat of a legislative proposal shows signs of having legs, get your virtual pen ready to sign our online "No to Pickens" petition, retooled for national scale.