Dan Gibson Legislation to Promote Natural Gas Vehicles

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Dan Gibson | 6 Comments


As I’m making my daily rounds on the web, there are few subjects that come across my news feed more often than natural gas vehicles (NGV). The messages about the positive benefits surrounding NGV’s are abundant. In fact, those benefits are so positive that a bill, H.R. 1622, written by Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK), passed last week by an overwhelming 393-35 vote.

H.R. 1622 authorizes the Department of Energy to spend $30 million annually for a five-year period on research and development for natural gas vehicles.

Some highlights from our press release on H.R. 1622 and the benefits of NGV’s include:

  • Natural gas vehicles reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 70 percent and nitrogen oxide by nearly 90 percent when compared to most gasoline-powered vehicles.
  • Natural gas is available in extremely large quantities in the United States, with 100 years of supply of natural gas available today and new technologies coming online that have the power to unearth enough gas to supply the country for much longer. Video from the Potential Gas Committee press event here.
  • Natural gas costs one-third less than conventional gasoline at the pump.

You can read the full release about the legislation promoting natural gas vehicles here. You can also visit our friends at Natural Gas Vehicles for America.

If you have an NGV, feel free to leave a comment below on your experience.

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Dan Gibson Roger Cooper on Clean Skies: Natural gas nearly perfect

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off


As I’ve said before, I’m a big Roger Cooper fan. After seeing Roger’s interview with Clean Skies, my opinion hasn’t changed. Recently there’s been news going around that the natural gas industry hasn’t fared that well in the current climate legislation.

That’s really not the case.


Or at least that’s not the case when it comes to the part of the natural gas industry that AGA represents. AGA represents natural gas distribution utilities. To really understand what that means, check out Dave’s post on “Who is the American Gas Association.”

As Roger points out, AGA has had a detailed advocacy plan in place for years leading up to the current environment. The goals in that plan were largely accomplished in the latest legislation. Natural gas utility customers are not covered under cap and trade until 2016, four years after program begins. During that time natural gas will be getting 9 percent of allowances until 2025, which will mean hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to our customers.

Roger does a great job of explaining this during the interview and his last line is classic. He even gets a chuckle from Susan McGinnis, his interviewer.

Susan: “In general you would say the natural gas industry does not come out a loser…”

Roger: “How can we be a loser, we’re a nearly perfect fuel.”

icon smile Roger Cooper on Clean Skies: Natural gas nearly perfect

There’s more great information in the interview so you should watch it yourself.  It’s a little over four minutes and embedded at the beginning of this post. You can also watch Roger’s interview on Clean Skies or on the AGA YouTube channel.

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Chris Hogan Discussing the Defend my Dividend campaign

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Chris Hogan | Comments Off


Lauren Blosse and I joined more than 30 representatives of the American Gas Association (AGA) and the Edison Electric Institute member companies and state utility shareholder organizations at a meeting to re-launch the Defend My Dividend (DMD) campaign. The July 15 event was held in Chicago and provided an important forum for key industry advocates to coordinate the DMD message of fair and reasonable tax rates on dividend income.

In light of the President Obama’s budget and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ supporting legislation, the campaign recently retooled its Web site (www.DefendMyDividend.com) and refined its messaging to commend the president and chairman who have both made statements in support of maintaining and making permanent the 15 percent dividend tax rate for a vast majority of Americans and capping the rate at 20 percent for other taxpayers.



In this video clip, I have a chance to discuss the DMD campaign and other key issues with Mandy Clark, Executive Director of Utility Shareholders of Florida.

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Dan Gibson Natural gas facts in the July issue of American Gas Magazine

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off


I was browsing through my July issue of American Gas Magazine and came across this statistic. Twenty years ago, 75 percent of federal lands were available for natural gas and oil leasing. Today, only 17 percent of those lands are available.

If you can’t find your copy, don’t forget that you can access the digital version of American Gas Magazine at aga.org

The July issue features Dave’s article on the AGA Vision 2020 Strategic Planning Initiative, a more in-depth article on the topic by Bruce Kauffmann (Bruce is going to do a post on this later so you all can chime in), a great safety article on the tools and strategies utilities are using to combat blowing gas situations, and more gas statistics. Enjoy.

agamag.chart01 Natural gas facts in the July issue of American Gas Magazine

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