Cummins Westport Inc. (CWI) announces the new ISL G Near Zero (NZ) NOx natural gas engine is the first MidRange engine in North America to receive emission certifications from both U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Air Resources Board (ARB) in California that meet the 0.02 g/bhp-hr optional Near Zero NOx Emissions standards for medium-duty truck, urban bus, school bus and refuse applications.
Read full press release here.
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is issuing, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office, this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), entitled “Fiscal Year 2016 Vehicle Technologies Program Wide Funding Opportunity Announcement.”
This FOA supports a broad portfolio of advanced highway transportation technologies that reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emission, while meeting or exceeding vehicle performance and cost expectations. Projects will focus on reducing the cost and improving the performance of a mix of near-and-long-term vehicle technologies.
Activities will contribute to achieving the goals of the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge, with a focus on accelerating the development of advanced batteries, power electronics, and lightweight materials technologies, while also supporting technology development to reduce petroleum consumption through advancements in combustion engines, alternative fuels, and other enabling technologies. The FOA also supports Clean Cities initiatives to overcome market barriers.
Join us for a Webinar on January 28, 2016
Title: DE-FOA-0001384 Fiscal Year 2016 Vehicle Technologies Program Wide Funding Opportunity Announcement Applicant Webinar
Date: January 28, 2016
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST
Please register for this webinar using the following link:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3302892619932711426
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar
Sullivan University’s new Tesla Superchargers are featured in the Winter 2016 edition of Fuels Fix.
January 4, 2016
By 2025, 40 percent of you will be driving vehicles powered by compressed natural gas, according to projections,” said Detief Hallermann, Ph.D., associate clinical professor, Texas A&M University.
There has been a huge increase in natural gas finds in the U.S. with the volume of natural gas being discovered in conjunction with new petroleum drilling, the U.S. has gone from a net importer of compressed natural gas to being a big exporter.
As some point, the U.S. will be in a position to use much of that natural gas domestically, and that includes new manufacturing, heating and cooling and vehicles. Hallermann says the domestic natural gas industry is still under construction. There is a transition from oil use to natural gas use that will be progressing rapidly in the next few years, he contends.
Read full article here
On Friday, December 18th, President Obama signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (H.R. 2029). Division Q, the “Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act” (PATH Act), retroactively extending many tax credits. PATH Act provisions with implications for clean transportation include:
The changes outlined above are effective immediately. To view the full text of the PATH Act, visit https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114hr2029enr/pdf/BILLS-114hr2029enr.pdf. See the Alternative Fuels Data Center Federal Laws and Incentives page for descriptions of each incentive.
The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) set up a partnership with the U.S. National Park Service to donate propane-powered equipment to parks that could use it. Watch the video below to hear how Blue Ridge Parkway, Yellowstone, and Mammoth Cave national parks have all made alternative fuels part of their operations, such as using propane for mowing, fueling tour buses, and backup power generation. Find out more here. Download case study here.
On Friday, December 4th, President Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or FAST Act (Public Law 114-94). Like prior surface transportation legislation, the FAST Act authorizes funds for highway construction, as well as highway safety and public transportation programs.
There are several FAST Act provisions with implications for Clean Cities portfolio items:
The changes outlined above are effective immediately. To view the full text of the FAST Act, visit https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr22/BILLS-114hr22enr.pdf.
ATA joined six other organizations calling for a three-year extension of the expired natural gas Alternative Fuel Excise Tax Credit and the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit. The provisions, which expired at the end of 2014, afforded tax credits of up to 30 percent of the cost of natural gas refueling equipment up to $30,000 and tax credits of $.50/gallon for both LNG and CNG. In a letter sent to the Finance and Ways and Means Committees, ATA and the other organizations seek retroactive tax credits for 2015 and an extension of the credits through 2017. In addition, ATA requested an adjustment of the LNG fuel tax credit so that it is based on a diesel gallon equivalent basis as opposed to a volumetric gallon basis. A copy of the letter can be viewed here. For more information, contact Glen Kedzie atgkedzie@trucking.org
December 2, 2015
Bill seeks to impose a fee on electric car owners
FRANKFORT – Electric car owners could be a charged an annual fee to offset the gas tax those motorists don’t pay under prefiled legislation for the 2016 General Assembly.
“This is a bill whose time has come,” bill sponsor Sen. Joe Bowen, R-Owensboro, said on Tuesday at the last meeting of the year for the Interim Joint Committee on Transportation. “It is a bill about fairness. It is a bill that is about being proactive. It is a bill that in time will help our challenged road fund.”
Known as BR 61, the legislation would require the owner of a plug-in electric vehicle to pay a $100 fee when initially registering the vehicle and upon renewal. He said the amount of the fee was derived from calculating the average amount a motorist in a gasoline-powered vehicle pays in gas taxes per year.
“The impetus behind this legislation is simple,” said Bowen, who is also a member of the committee. “If you are using our … roads out there, you ought to help pay for them. Currently, we have a situation where there is an exempt class – those folks who drive a vehicle powered by electricity or battery. They pay no road tax. They pay no fee. And that is not fair.”
Georgia, Idaho and Wyoming enacted legislation this year requiring new fees on certain hybrid and electric vehicles, according to information from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) that was shared with the committee. Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington adopted fees for electric vehicles during previous legislative sessions.
Georgia also issues an “alternative fuel license plate” to electric vehicles, which gives these vehicles the ability to drive in high occupancy toll, known as HOT lanes, regardless of the number of passengers in the vehicle, according to NCSL. Hybrid vehicle owners who wish to pay the $200 fee to receive this plate and the benefit of travelling in the HOT lanes with no passenger restrictions may do so, but it is not required for a normal registration.
Committee Co-chair Rep. Hubert Collins, D-Wittensville, asked if the federal government was moving to tax electric vehicles.
Bowen said the legislation was an attempt at being proactive.
“This is acting because Washington hasn’t acted,” he said. “We shouldn’t wait on Washington to make decisions that are good for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. A lot of decisions Washington makes have a negative effect on … Kentucky.”
After the committee was informed that Oregon has agreed to a 5,000-vehicle opt-in this year that allows drivers to pay a fee based on miles driven rather than gallons of fuel purchased, Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, asked Bowen if he researched replacing the gas tax with a fee based on miles driven. Bowen said “no,” adding that there is already a system in place to tax vehicles that use other alternative fuels such as propane.
Committee Co-chair Ernie Harris, R-Prospect, said he looks forward to the state Senate taking up the prefiled bill early in the upcoming session. He added that an amendment might be attached that would address falling gas tax receipts because of more fuel-efficient vehicles and a huge inventory of used cars.
Those fuel-efficient vehicles are attributed, in part, to projected declines in the amount of motor fuels taxes estimated to be collected in the future. The motor fuels taxes collected by Kentucky is expected to decrease $100.4 million, or 11.8 percent, from this past fiscal year to fiscal year 2016, according to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet estimates presented to the committee.
Harris said that projected decline is squeezing funding for transportation infrastructure – which relies heavily on gasoline taxes.
