Bill could give tax breaks for natural gas cars

The Georgia General Assembly will see a bill on Friday that would give tax breaks to cars that are converted to run on compressed natural gas, Channel 2 consumer investigator Jim Strickland has learned.

Officials will gather Friday in DeKalb County to mark the opening of the county's first CNG pump open to the public.

David Abroms' truck runs on CNG. He met Strickland at the fueling location on Lithonia Industrial Boulevard where the fuel is selling for the equivalent price of $2.499 per gallon.

"That dollar a gallon can add up really quick. At $2.50 a gallon, that's a lot less than you're paying for gasoline, and it's less than you're paying for diesel," Abroms said.

Dunwoody's PS Energy Group is putting pumps at four metro outlets in partnership with a company owned by billionaire T. Boone Pickens. More than $2 million in federal stimulus money is helping fund the project.

AGL Resources is looking for partners now to install 10 more stations, using money from a state fund.

"Part of what's lacking is the infrastructure and the cost of conversion, buying CNG vehicles. That's an issue that has to be addressed," said PS Energy CEO Livia Whisenhunt.

Abroms has started selling conversion kits, but retrofitting a truck like his can run $12,000. Only Honda makes a car factory ready for CNG.

"I get phone calls three or four times a day about when people can get these cars, when they can get a refueling station and where they can fuel them," said Honda Mall of Georgia fleet manager Robert Thompson.

The Honda CNG Civic costs $7,000 more than the traditional version and has a three-month waiting list.