Amendment #24 to H4000
Establishment of the Alternative Fuels Revolving Fund
Representatives Beaton of Shrewsbury, Jones of North Reading, Peterson of Grafton, Hill of Ipswich, Poirier of North Attleborough and deMacedo of Plymouth move to amend the bill by inserting the following new section:-
“SECTION XX. (a) Chapter 7 of the General Laws as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 9A the following section:-
SECTION 9B. There shall be established a separate fund to be known as the alternative fuel vehicle revolving fund, to be known herein after as “the Fund”. The Fund shall consist of such moneys appropriated by the general court and any other funds transferred from existing accounts held by the executive office of of energy and environmental affairs, funds available from donations, grants, in-kind contributions, and other funds as may be received for the purposes stated herein. Interest earned on moneys in the Fund shall remain in the Fund and be credited to it. Any moneys remaining in the Fund, including interest thereon, at the end of each fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund but shall remain in the Fund. Moneys in the Fund shall be used solely for the purposes of assisting agencies of the Commonwealth with the incremental cost of state-owned alternative fuel vehicles and local government and agencies thereof, and local school divisions with the incremental cost of such local government-owned alternative fuel vehicles. Moneys in the Fund may be used in conjunction with or as matching funds for any eligible federal grants for the same purpose.
The secretary of the executive office of energy and environmental affairs, in consultation with the commissioners of the department of environmental protection and the division of energy resources, shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this section.
As used in this section, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:—
“Alternative fuel”, methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols; mixtures containing 85 percent or more by volume of methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols with gasoline or other fuels; natural gas; liquefied petroleum gas; hydrogen; coal-derived liquid fuels; fuels (other than alcohol) derived from biological materials; electricity (including electricity from solar energy); and any other fuel that the department of environmental protection determines is substantially not petroleum.
“Alternative fuel vehicle”, a motor vehicle, as defined in section 1 chapter 90 of the General Laws which: (1) operates exclusively on an alternative fuel; (2) meets applicable state and federal safety and emission standards; and (3) is registered in Massachusetts on the last day of the taxable year in which the credit pursuant to this section is claimed. In addition, for an alternative fuel vehicle less than 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating, the alternative fuel vehicle shall meet ultra-low emission vehicle standards for total vehicle emissions. For an alternative fuel vehicle equal to or greater than 6,000 gross vehicle weight rating, the alternative fuel vehicle shall meet federal emission standards for a new comparable vehicle.
“Comparable conventionally-fueled motor vehicle” or “comparable vehicle”, a motor vehicle which is (1) commercially available at the time the comparability of the vehicle is being assessed; (2) powered by an internal combustion engine that uses petroleum as its fuel source; and (3) provides passenger capacity or payload capacity the same or similar to the alternative fuel vehicle to which it is being compared.
“Incremental cost”, the difference between the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of an alternative fuel vehicle and of a comparable conventionally-fueled motor vehicle.”.