The Center for American Progress reported on the Senate’s opportunity to pass bipartisan legislation during the lame duck session that would take the first steps toward developing an energy plan for America. The center’s Daniel Weiss writes that Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill, Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act (S. 3815), features elements that are drawn from bills with clear support from both sides of the aisle.
According to Weiss, there is broad-based political support for the natural gas provisions, which have been adapted from the NAT GAS Act (S. 1408):
The Senate Democratic Policy Committee notes that, “The natural gas industry … estimated that this program will create more than 100,000 direct manufacturing and labor jobs and more than 450,000 indirect jobs.”
Cosponsors of the NAT GAS Act include Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), George LeMieux (R-FL), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
The electric vehicle elements of Reid’s bill are drawn from The Electric Vehicle Deployment Act (S. 3442). Its focus is to “speed the transition to electric vehicles by creating a pilot program to help some communities create electric vehicle recharging infrastructure for plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf.”
Among the cosponsors of The Electric Vehicle Deployment Act are Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Susan Collins (R-ME), and George LeMieux (R-FL).
Read the complete article HERE.