This week advocates for alternative transportation fuels gathered in Washington, D.C. to network and meet with Congressional staff and other officials. Harrisonburg’s Alleyn Harned was there and spoke with WMRA’s Christopher Clymer Kurtz.
The Transportation Energy Partners 2018 Energy Independence Summit ends today [Wed. Feb. 14] after four days of bringing together advocates for clean transportation from across the country. Alleyn Harned, Director of Virginia Clean Cities, said yesterday [Tues. Feb. 13] that the Summit was a chance to “catch up on progress and then share that progress with representatives.”
ALLEYN HARNED: We’re meeting with staffers of every representative in the Virginia Congressional delegation. They are all supportive and engaged.
For Virginia especially, he said, transitioning to cleaner fuels is a bipartisan desire.
HARNED: All of our representatives understand that Virginia produces no oil. They understand the economic cost of spending so much of our incomes on a commodity that is totally out of state.
Harned would like to see continued collaboration between federal and other levels of government.
HARNED: The ask is to have the federal government be participant, and I think we’ve got a real solid chance here. We certainly support the clean energy tax provisions that came through in the bipartisan budget bill last Friday.
While he would prefer that those incentives be available longer term, he said, he does appreciate that they are “on the books.”