II 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3437 

To amend the Natural Gas Act to provide assistance to States to carry 

out initiatives to promote the use of natural gas as a transportation 

fuel and public and private investment in natural gas vehicles and transportation infrastructure. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 25, 2012 

Mr. CASEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To amend the Natural Gas Act to provide assistance to 

States to carry out initiatives to promote the use of 

natural gas as a transportation fuel and public and private investment in natural gas vehicles and transportation infrastructure. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘State Natural Gas Act 

5 of 2012’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. GRANTS TO STATES TO PROMOTE NATURAL GAS 

2 USE IN TRANSPORTATION. 

3 The Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717 et seq.) is 

4 amended— 

5 (1) by redesignating sections 25 and 26 (15 

6 U.S.C. 717v, 717w) as sections 26 and 27, respec7 tively; and 

8 (2) by inserting after section 24 (15 U.S.C. 

9 717u) the following: 

10 ‘‘SEC. 25. GRANTS TO STATES TO PROMOTE NATURAL GAS 

11 USE IN TRANSPORTATION. 

12 ‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are— 

13 ‘‘(1) to provide assistance to States to carry out 

14 initiatives to promote— 

15 ‘‘(A) the use of natural gas as a transpor16 tation fuel; and 

17 ‘‘(B) public and private investment in nat18 ural gas vehicles and transportation infrastruc19 ture; and 

20 ‘‘(2) to recognize that each State is different 

21 and initiatives are most effective when the initiatives 

22 are structured to meet the specific needs and chal23 lenges of an individual State. 

24 ‘‘(b) GRANTS.—The Secretary of Energy (referred to 

25 in this section as the ‘Secretary’) shall make grants availVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:55 Jul 26, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3437.IS S3437

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1 able to States to independently carry out initiatives within 

2 the States to promote the purposes of this section. 

3 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBILITY.—A State shall be eligible to re4 ceive a grant under this section if— 

5 ‘‘(1) the State submits an application to the 

6 Secretary at such time, in such form, and containing 

7 such information as the Secretary may prescribe, in8 cluding a plan for initiatives to be carried out using 

9 the grant; and 

10 ‘‘(2) the Secretary— 

11 ‘‘(A) determines that the application and 

12 plan of the State promote the purposes of this 

13 section; and 

14 ‘‘(B) approves the application. 

15 ‘‘(d) MINIMUM AMOUNT.—Subject to the availability 

16 of funds under subsection (f), the minimum amount of a 

17 grant provided to a State that submits an application that 

18 is approved by the Secretary under this section shall be 

19 $1,000,000. 

20 ‘‘(e) ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS.—Subject to the avail21 ability of funds under subsection (f), in addition to the 

22 minimum amount that is provided under subsection (d), 

23 the Secretary shall increase the amount of grants available 

24 to eligible States to reflect the potential of applications 

25 and plans of the States to promote the purposes of this 


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1 section (as determined by the Secretary), taking into con2 sideration— 

3 ‘‘(1) the relative amount of public and private 

4 funds that are likely to be leveraged by initiatives 

5 described in the plan of the State; 

6 ‘‘(2) the degree that initiatives will support a 

7 need that is unlikely to be met by the private sector 

8 absent grant program funding; 

9 ‘‘(3) the degree that initiatives will act as a 

10 bridge to private investment and sustainable market 

11 conditions; and 

12 ‘‘(4) the amount of funds invested in public and 

13 private investment in States in natural gas transpor14 tation and infrastructure. 

15 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

16 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

17 $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2013 through 

18 2022.’’. 

Æ 


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