NGV's are interesting but still out weighed by Petrolium

During the height of the petroleum spike in 2008, a lot of people became aware of alternative fuels, especially since many of them were less expensive than the artificially inflated price of petroleum and gasoline in particular. Shortly after prices of gasoline came down and stabilized, I went to fill up my 99 Honda conversion to CNG an quickly noticed a 50 cent per gallon increase. I didn't even bother to fill up my Honda - I quickly re-calculated the cost / benefit and decided to remove the CNG kit from the Honda.


Here is what I found on Questar's website
(http://www.questargas.com/FuelingSystems/NGV/ngv.php)

The article starts out with "With growing public concern over high gasoline prices, dependence on foreign-oil imports, global warming and air quality, Questar Gas is focused on providing safe, clean-burning natural gas for vehicles."

CNG News

CNG to increase 50 cents per gallon July 7, 2010
On Jan. 1, the U.S. Senate allowed to expire a long-standing 50-cent-per-gallon tax credit for those who dispense natural gas for vehicles. Questar Gas continued its practice of passing along the credit to NGV drivers for the past six months assuming Congress would extend it. This now appears unlikely. The 50-cent-per-gallon credit will be removed July 7, 2010 and the per-gallon pump price will increase accordingly. We apologize for this price increase.

We apologize for the increase??? That's nice, but somehow, the US Senate was convinced that they needed to add back the 50 cent per gallon tax on to CNG used for transportation. With all of the arm waving and begging for people to cut-back on driving because of air pollution, we just made the situation worse. So, I wonder, who or what entity would entice the US Senate to replace the tax on CNG? Or, who would gain by making CNG vehicles less cost effective? I have only one candidate for that.