USA: 15 Companies Create Florida Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition

A group of 15 companies announced the creation of The Florida Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition (FNGVC), including TECO/Peoples Gas, Florida Natural Gas, Champion Brands, and JJ Taylor Companies. FNGVC advocates incentives similar to those in Texas and nearly a dozen other states. Such programs offer grants, tax credits and other incentives for the purchase of NGVs (natural gas vehicles).

FNGVC also released an Economic Impact Study showing NGV incentives could create over 10,000 jobs, $300 million in new wages and $1 billion dollars in economic output over two decades. Coalition Chair, Eric Criss, said of the study, “This is big news for job seekers in Florida. Our most conservative calculations show an NGV incentive program could produce hundreds of millions of dollars in new wages, with taxpayers reimbursed one hundred percent.”

FNGVC invites members of the news media to participate in a conference call announcing results of its Economic Impact Study. Economist Russ Weyer of Fishkind and Associates will be available to answer questions following an overview of findings.

State Representative Lake Ray, a leader on such issues, believes that NGVs will be considered in the 2013 legislative session in Tallahassee. Ray stated: “It is vital to Florida’s economic future that we have a conversation about transportation, freight mobility and logistics in the next legislative session. I believe that natural gas vehicles will be an important component of that discussion.”

David Rogers, Executive Director of the Florida Natural Gas Association, expressed the gas industry’s support: “We support the coalition’s goal of increasing the use of this clean, efficient and domestic fuel in Florida. Purchasing new fleet vehicles to run on American produced natural gas is a proven way to save public and private sector transportation funds while creating new jobs.”

Coalition Chair Criss explained why businesses are turning to NGVs: “We have reached the tipping point for NGVs – the technology is already in use across the nation and around the world. Moreover, businesses are desperate to cut their fuel costs. AAA reported the largest July increase for the national average retail gas price in more than a dozen years. Prices rose 36 of 39 days.”

Coalition members include:

•  TECO/Peoples Gas
• Florida Public Utilities
• NoPetro
• JJ Taylor Companies
• Goldring Gulf Distributing
• Beer Industry of Florida
• Florida Natural Gas
• Rush Trucks
• Champion Brands
• S.R. Perrott
• Florida Distributing Company
• All In One Fuels
• Trillium CNG
• Energy Services of Pensacola
• Cone Distributing

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LNG World News Staff, August 16, 2012