Natural Gas Added to US Alt-Fuel Program

A US House of Representatives committee meeting June 17 has added natural gas and propane to a national program aimed at increasing the use of alternative fuel vehicles.

The amendment, introduced with “strong bipartisan support” by Rep. Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, was added as the House transportation & infrastructure committee considered its Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill, part of the INVEST in America Act.

“Federal policies to advance and encourage the continued transition of fleets to cleaner, lower carbon technologies must include an all-of-the-above approach that meets the needs of all fleets,” NGVAmerica president Dan Gage said in a statement. “Representative Fletcher has long been a champion of affordable, cost-effective clean fuel transportation technologies including natural gas, and our members applaud her for her leadership to ensure that every clean fleet can benefit from expanded alt fuel corridor infrastructure investment.”

Earlier American legislation passed in 2015 created a national program for expanding alternative fuel vehicle use through alternative fuel corridors, but it didn’t provide grant funding for the build-out of alternative fuel transportation infrastructure.

Both the House and Senate versions of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bills included language to create grant programs to aid development of that infrastructure. But while the Senate environment and public works committee passed its America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 to include natural gas as eligible for corridors grant funding, the House of Representatives’ INVEST in America legislation originally applied only to electric and hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

Fletcher’s amendment effectively restores natural gas as an eligible fuel under both pieces of legislation.