Oklahoma lawmakers are considering legislation that would provide tax credits to Oklahomans who buy compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other alternative fuel vehicles and to companies building infrastructure for the vehicles.

HB 1949, passed by the Oklahoma House by a 94-4 vote earlier this month, would extend for five years an existing tax credit on the purchase of CNG, LNG and electric cars. The credit is equal to 50% of the cost of conversion of a vehicle to operate on a qualified fuel, as well as those originally equipped to do so. The bill would also add hydrogen and hydraulic hybrid vehicles to the state’s list of qualified fuels. Oklahomans installing home-fueling stations for the vehicles would be eligible for $2,500 tax credits.

“One area where it is appropriate for government to help incentivize the alternative fuels industry is in building infrastructure,” said Oklahoma House Speaker Chris Benge, who sponsored the bill. “We know consumer demand for these local energy sources will not grow if the infrastructure is not in place to make the change convenient.” Benge said he hopes the tax credits will help double the number of publicly available CNG fueling stations in the state.

The bill is still under consideration by the Oklahoma Senate.

Oil magnate T. Boone Pickens has received mixed reviews for his Pickens Plan, which includes a call for natural gas to be widely used as a transportation fuel, particularly by the long-haul trucking industry, since he began promoting it last year (see Daily GPI, July 11, 2008). A series of public officials have signed on to the plan and some businesses have jumped on board as well. AT&T recently said it would invest up to $565 million in an effort to deploy more than 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles — including about 8,000 CNG vehicles — over the next 10 years (see Daily GPI, March 12).

But at the same time others have balked at the massive infrastructure development required by the Pickens Plan. The trade group American Trucking Associations has said cost, infrastructure and logistics challenges make Pickens’ call for wide use of natural gas as a transportation fuel highly problematic (see Daily GPI, Feb. 23).

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