SOLAR TODAY Blog

T. Boone Pickens, the 81-year-old billionaire oilman now campaigning for national energy independence, last week told the Wall Street Journal he doesn't have time to wait around for Congressional action. He wants the Natural Gas Act, HR 1835 and SB 1408, passed and signed by Memorial Day.

Pickens, who has invested about $62 million in his Pickens Plan, has laid plans to build vast wind farms in Texas, and he wants to convert eight million trucks from diesel to natural gas. He also wants the federal government's roughly six million vehicles to use only domestic fuel. To avoid buying fuel "from the enemy," Pickens said, he embraces electric vehicles and any other fuel produced within the United States.

According to the Congressional Research Service, HR 1835, titled "New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2009" amends the Internal Revenue Code to --

• allow an excise tax credit through 2027 for alternative fuels and fuel mixtures involving compressed or liquefied natural gas;
• allow an income tax credit through 2027 for alternative fuel motor vehicles powered by compressed or liquefied natural gas;
• modify the tax credit percentage for alternative fuel vehicles fueled by natural gas or liquefied natural gas;
• allow a new tax credit for the production of vehicles fueled by natural gas or liquefied natural gas; and
• extend through 2027 the tax credit for alternative fuel vehicle refueling property expenditures for refueling property relating to compressed or liquefied natural gas and allow an increased credit for such property.

It also--

• requires 50 percent of all new vehicles purchased or placed in service by the U.S. government by December 31, 2014, to be capable of operating on compressed or liquefied natural gas; and
• authorizes the secretary of energy to make grants to manufacturers of light and heavy-duty natural gas vehicles for the development of engines that reduce emissions, improve performance and efficiency, and lower cost.