U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced the Waterway LNG Parity Act of 2015 that would ensure that excise taxes on LNG for marine transportation on the inland waterways are levied at a rate consistent with their energy output relative to diesel and gasoline, respectively.

“This common-sense legislation would remove another barrier to the greater utilization of clean-burning, low-cost domestic natural gas in the transportation sector by leveling the playing field for the taxation of LNG fuel used in marine vessels operating on inland waterways in the U.S.,” said NGVAmerica President Matt Godlewski

The current financing mechanism for the inland waterways system puts the use of LNG—which is a cleaner, cheaper, and domestic fuel—at a disadvantage. This legislation would change the inland waterways financing rate to provide equal treatment within the federal tax code.

“It takes about 1.7 gallons of LNG to provide the same amount of energy as a gallon of diesel. Those who use LNG to power marine vessels would have to pay 50 cents in tax for the same amount of energy contained in a gallon of diesel fuel that is only taxed at 29 cents—that doesn’t make sense,” said Dr. Cassidy.

“Providing parity to LNG for marine transportation—just as we recently did for cars and trucks—creates an opportunity to grow this market and encourages the use of domestically produced natural gas as a cleaner burning transportation fuel,” Bennet said.

 

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