Despite support from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), an amendment to jump-start the adoption of natural gas vehicles (NGV) and the supporting infrastructure for large trucking fleets failed in the Senate Tuesday as lawmakers did not obtain the 60 votes needed to fend off a filibuster.

The measure, which was defeated 51-47 sought to provide subsidies to manufacturers of NGVs, purchasers of NGVs and the installers of natural gas fueling stations. The bill is a mirror of the one that NGV proponent T. Boone Pickens has been touting.

The vote was a setback for investors in the emerging industry.

The amendment was offered as part of the Senate’s two-year, $109 billion bill (S. 1813) that would fund new highway construction and maintain existing bridges and roads. The authorization under the existing highway bill expires on March 31.

An amendment aimed at eliminating all tax subsidies for energy, not just for Big Oil, was defeated by 72-26. The proposal was offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).

The failed NGV amendment comes during a time when NGV backers were riding high. The swing toward NGVs took on aspects of a bandwagon last week as GM and Chrysler paraded out new natural gas-powered pickup trucks (see Daily GPI, March 8a; March 6), and GE and Chesapeake Energy Corp. heralded a new “CNG In A Box” fueling station (see Daily GPI, March 8b).

Not to be left out, American Honda Motor Co., which bills itself as the only automaker selling natural gas-powered passenger cars in the U.S. (Honda Civic), said it would be helping to answer the “chicken and egg” conundrum by installing CNG pumps in some of its dealerships (see Daily GPI, March 12).

President Obama also addressed the “which comes first” question last week (see Daily GPI, March 8c), including natural gas-powered vehicles in his $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge to spur deployment of alternative fuel vehicles in communities around the country.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much natural gas or flexfuel or electric vehicles you have, if there’s no place to charge them up or fill them up,” Obama said at the Daimler Trucks North America Mt. Holly Truck Manufacturing Plant in Mount Holly, NC. “So that’s why I’m announcing…a program that will put our communities on the cutting edge of what clean energy can do. To cities and towns all across the country, what we’re going to say is ‘if you make a commitment to buy more advanced vehicles for your community, whether they run on electricity or biofuels or natural gas, we’ll help you cut through the red tape and build fueling stations nearby.'”

On Monday Clean Energy Fuels Corp. CEO Andrew Littlefair told financial analysts on an earnings call that he likes his company’s strategic positioning to take advantage of what it considers now widespread acceptance of natural gas as the alternative fuel of choice for large trucks and a new national network of fueling stations it expects to be in place by next year (see related story).

Earlier this year, Pickens and other investors injected another $150 million into Clean Energy Fuels, the natural gas transportation fueling company Pickens founded (see Daily GPI, Jan. 3).

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