Without a doubt, the Natural Gas vehicle fueling is a good thing. There are also companies investing in using methane for Ships, Trains and the like.
But I strongly believe, having the government select technologies, use tax payer funds to benefit some companies while excluding others, is a terrible idea.
Tell me why we should give CNG tax incentives that would not apply to a technology like Shell is using doing to turn Natural Gas into a liquid fuel like diesel?
http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/meeting-demand/natural-gas/gtl.html
This technology is already proven and working. It requires no additional investment by a consumer.
The best thing government can do to encourage new development of technology that helps our economy and energy independence is to limit their involvement in the process.
Coal, oil, gas, hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, and ethanol have all received and are still receiving federal and local subsidies to promote/enable their use to improve the standard of living of all Americans.
Rather than deprive subsidies from Pickens' plan for 18 wheelers, let's abolish the subsidies on all those other sources of power. Your livelihood comes from your work in a subsidized industry, no?
If CNG to diesel beats the cost of oil diesel, then that should be one of the alternatives. If on the other hand if its more costly, like ethanol, then burning straight NG makes sense. You are more attune to the technical side than I.
My thinking on transportation fuel relates to what Brazil did. To get drivers to get away from oil based fuel, they mandated E85 and E100 and mandated truck/car manufacturers to make them work on Ethanol. Now its well accepted and no one wants to buy oil based gasoline.
Mandating CNG here would not go over as well as it did with the Brazileros, but nudging us away from oil based should work. Local CNG availability will make it happen, but availability is where the big costs are.
One of the major stumbling blocks T-Boone has is his Nobama friend is bought and paid for by the Saudis and Soros (whose interests are against CNG).