An Open Letter to the United States Congress: No Special Tax Treatment for Natural Gas Vehicles!

Jan 30, 2012 | 4 min read | Print Article

Taxpayers for Common Sense joined several groups today to call on Congress to oppose the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NAT GAS) Act (S. 1863, H.R.1380), or any other effort to create or expand special tax treatment for the production, conversion or sale of vehicles that run on natural gas.

An Open Letter to the United States Congress:
No Special Tax Treatment for Natural Gas Vehicles!

January 30, 3012

Dear Members of Congress:

We are writing to renew our objections to the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NAT GAS) Act (S. 1863, H.R.1380), or any other effort to create or expand special tax treatment for the production, conversion or sale of vehicles that run on natural gas. Several members of this coalition expressed similar concern in a letter dated May 24, 2011. Given President Obama’s recent public pronouncements that he wants to expand his portfolio of politically advantaged vehicles from electric cars to include natural gas vehicles, we feel the need to remind Congress about the perils of government attempting to conduct industrial policy by picking winners and losers in the country’s automobile fleet.

The NAT GAS Act would provide preferential treatment for nearly every aspect of the natural gas-fueled vehicle industry, from production to purchase and the infrastructure needed to fuel such vehicles. Tax incentives like these allow government to decide which energy sources thrive or fail—and thereby distort the market. America’s experience with a number of similar energy policy preferences dating back to the 1970s has shown that businesses benefiting from these incentives become reliant on government in order to stay in business. As a result, an entire industry of lobbyists is spawned to protect a benefit without which many businesses could not succeed in the free market.

We believe that evenly applying low taxation across the board allows market participants to make choices that are not manipulated by Washington policymakers. By targeting tax preferences toward one type of transportation fuel—natural gas—the NAT GAS Act does the exact opposite. America’s tax code is already overburdened with too many carveouts for special interests that raise compliance costs, distort decision making and advantage the politically well connected. The last thing Congress should be doing is making the tax code more complex.

The millions of Americas represented by the undersigned groups urge you not to support any effort to perpetuate the Washington-insider business model where the well connected use the tax code to gain a market advantage over their competitors.

We urge you to reject special tax treatment for natural gas vehicles.

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Pyle
President
American Energy Alliance

Donald Ferguson
Executive Director
American Tradition Partnership

Tim Phillips
President
Americans for Prosperity

Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform

Chris Chocola
President
The Club for Growth

Tom Schatz
President
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Matthew Brouillette
President & CEO
Commonwealth Foundation

Myron Ebell
President
Freedom Action

Michael A. Needham
Chief Executive Officer
Heritage Action for America

Heather Higgins
President
Independent Women’s Voice