State lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill providing 30-million dollars to convert commercial fleet vehicles to natural gas. Even though Florida\u2019s new law is considered the most progressive in the country, not everyone agrees it\u2019s the best for the state.
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Natural gas is cheaper, more efficient and cleaner than gas or diesel. State government and private companies have already started using the alternative form of fuel. \u201dThe fuel is very economical. We bought 8 buses, now we have 44 buses,\u201d said Manny Joanos, Leon County Schools. <\/p>\n

Schools in Tallahassee were the first to use natural gas to power buses. About one-third of their fleet uses the domestic gas. \u201dIt wasn\u2019t until 2009 before we bought the first school buses,\u201d said Joanos. <\/p>\n

This legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bill which encourages private and public companies to convert commercial fleet vehicles to natural gas. \u201dThis legislation is going to push a lot of people over the fence. Where they\u2019ve been on if they can make it work for them,\u201d said Dale Calhoun, Natural Gas Supporter. <\/p>\n

The Governor signed the bill into law. It\u2019ll reimburse companies 50-percent for the extra costs to purchase a vehicle running on natural gas. Supporters say it will encourage more natural gas refueling stations and in the long run, it will save money for companies. <\/p>\n

Even with support for the use of natural gas; Florida tea partiers don\u2019t support state rebates. \u201dWhat it sounds like to me is the state taking away voices. Anytime you have rebate incentive on state, federal or local. They\u2019re picking the winners and losers,\u201d said Pace Allen, Tea Party member. <\/p>\n

The law goes into effect January 1st; it also repeals provisions requiring annual decal fee program, and provides natural gas fuel tax. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill providing 30-million dollars to convert commercial fleet vehicles to natural gas. Even though Florida\u2019s new law is considered the most progressive in the country, not everyone agrees it\u2019s the best for the state. Natural gas is cheaper, more efficient and cleaner than gas or diesel. State government and private […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18681,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18661\/revisions\/18681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}