Please write your state Senator and Representative!

[John Mitton]

As Highmarker pointed out in his recent post in this forum, our state tax credits for alternative fuel vehicles seem to always come under attack from other interests who would rather the money be spent on something else...

House Bill 122 passed the House last year, but fortunately died in the Senate due to lack of time left in the session. In a nutshell it would have:

• Eliminated the current credit for up to $3,000 to cover half the incremental cost for vehicles powered by natural gas, propane and electricity.
• Instead provided a $1,000 credit for the original purchase of passenger vehicles meeting air quality and fuel economy standards, including (if you can believe this 26 MPG ethanol vehicles -- which everyone knows are all filling up on gasoline anyway). Heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses would obtain up to $5,000 in credits.

The following article provides a good summary (pdf file):

http://www.swenergy.org/media/mc2007_0216.pdf

The actual bill is here (also pdf format):

http://www.swenergy.org/legislative/2007/utah/HB122-Amended.pdf

I encourage everyone to look up their state Senator and Representative's e-mail address here:

http://www.le.state.ut.us/maps/amap.html

Then let them know your concerns. The more positive input we can provide them the better.

Here is the message I recently sent.
--------------------------------------------

Dear {Representaive or Senator} ___________,

I want to express my support for continuing the state incentives for use of clean auto fuels.

http://incometax.utah.gov/credits_cleanfuel.php

My Honda Civic GX runs on clean natural gas.

http://kengarffhondadowntow.reachlocal.net/natural_gas_vehicles.htm

This fuel burns extremely clean, is cheap, abundant, and largely sourced from Utah wells. The downside is the fueling system is somewhat expensive due to low vehicle production volumes. That is were our state tax credit comes in. Without it and the Federal credit I would still be driving a polluting gasoline vehicle. Hopefully with these credits we can collectively encourage more production of alternative fueled vehicles and the conversion of existing gasoline vehicles to alternative sources, thus driving down costs and eventually eliminating the need for tax incentives.

Can you imagine the positive financial impact on our economy if even 10% of the vehicles on Utah's roads were fueling from Questar instead of from imported oil? This is not to mention the improved air quality from burning clean natural gas on our highways.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this, and I appreciate your support for clean air and the local economy.

Best Regards,