Seems counterintuitive since we are an energy state with plenty of natural gas reserves, but both Senators are against subsidies and tax credits. I like their logic, especially Inhofe's. I suspect neither of them will be on the Pickens Family Christmas card list this year.
Oh, and Reid is full of smile, he's got to throw in the "1 million jobs" so he can say Republicans are against job creation again.
Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe shun bill to boost natural gas vehicles
Senate majority leaders' bill backed by T. Boone Pickens, but Oklahoma senators believe government should stay out of the market.
BY CHRIS CASTEEL
ccasteel@opubco.com Published: November 16, 2011
WASHINGTON — Key senators introduced legislation Tuesday to boost natural gas vehicles — an effort backed by energy investor T. Boone Pickens — but Oklahoma's senators declined to get on board.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and a bipartisan group of senators say their bill to provide tax incentives for the production and purchase of natural gas vehicles would create jobs, lower consumer fuel costs, reduce pollution and make the nation more energy secure.
“We cannot afford to continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year to buy oil from foreign countries, many of which are unfriendly to the United States,'' said Reid, D-Nevada.
“This bill will create over 1 million jobs by accelerating the development of clean alternative vehicles and fuels here at home, and make our nation more secure,” Reid said.
The bill is a companion to one introduced earlier this year in the House by Reps. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa, and Dan Boren, D-Muskogee.
That legislation has 181 co-sponsors in the House, though nearly 20 others have withdrawn their support since many outside organizations have come out against it.
Groups like Taxpayers for Common Sense, Americans for Tax Reform and the National Taxpayers Union have protested more government intervention in the energy market and have urged lawmakers not to support the bill.
Oklahoma's senators are also opposed to using tax credits to steer the market toward the vehicles.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, who has been calling for broad tax reform that would end or limit numerous tax credits — including those for ethanol — wants to see a transition to natural gas vehicles but has not endorsed the bill because of the tax credits, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
And a spokesman for Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, said the senator has not changed his position since he told The Oklahoman in July that the case for natural gas was so strong, the industry didn't need tax subsidies.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon expressed frustration in July that Congress had not passed the bill in the three years it has been introduced and reintroduced. This is the second time that Reid and Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, have sponsored the legislation.
Pickens — who has put his emphasis on the need to produce heavy duty trucks to run on natural gas as a way to reduce the need for imported oil — said Tuesday that domestic natural gas has the potential to transform the nation's economy.
But, he said, “if past experience is any indication, I have no doubt that special interests that only care about themselves will attempt to create false arguments and false choices to stop this legislation.
“I sincerely urge the Senate to recognize those voices for what they are — obstacles of change and endorsers of the status quo, which is not working,” he said.
The Senate legislation, which also includes incentives for building natural gas refueling stations, would impose a temporary fee on liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas used as vehicle fuel to offset the costs of the tax breaks.
The House bill's cost has been estimated at $5 billion over the five years the tax breaks would be offered.
Read more:
http://newsok.com/sens.-tom-coburn-and-jim-inhofe-shun-bill-to-boost-natural-gas-vehicles/article/3623609#ixzz1du2YsSy8
