House Rejects Tax Equalization For LNG
The U.S. House has stripped a provision from the highway bill that sought to eliminate the tax disparity between diesel and liquefied natural gas.
The equalization measure sponsored by Colorado Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall was in the Senate version of the bill that shores up the Highway Trust Fund.
However, the House on July 31 kicked the transportation funding bill back to the Senate but minus the LNG provision.
The senators and other proponents of LNG want the fuel to be taxed on energy content rather than on a per gallon basis as diesel is taxed.
Glen Kedzie, energy and environmental counsel to American Trucking Associations, said it takes 1.7 gallons of LNG to equal the energy in one gallon of diesel.
Compressed natural gas has been taxed on a gasoline gallon energy equivalent basis since 1994.
Kedzie said ATA supports tax equalization for LNG.
