Obama pushes incentives and funds to buy natural gas vehicles

From US Gasvehicles.com

April 1, 2011. President Barack Obama's call for more funds for natural gas exploration and incentives to buy vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) may finally spur Congress to act.

"The potential for natural gas is enormous," Obama said at a speech on energy policy at Georgetown University Wednesday.

A measure that would have dedicated $4 billion to boost the sale and development of natural gas vehicles stalled in Congress last year after the Senate failed to break a filibuster to approve the bill.

But Obama noted that natural gas still has strong support in Congress.

"Last year, more than 150 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle produced legislation providing incentives to use clean-burning natural gas (CNG) in our vehicles instead of oil. And that's a big deal. Getting 150 members of Congress to agree on anything is a big deal," he said.

He urged Congress to "keep at it, pass a bill that helps us achieve the goal of extracting natural gas in a safe, environmentally sound way."