BISMARCK - A bill heard Thursday by the House Natural Resources Committee could bring affordable hydrogen vehicles a step closer, according to the bill's prime sponsor, Rep. David Monson, R-Osnabrock.

The bill would provide $250,000 for grants to help develop up to five stations where anyone running a hydrogen-powered vehicle could fuel up.

Monson said while hydrogen-powered vehicles aren't common, there are buses in Winnipeg and Minneapolis that run on hydrogen. Providing a place for them to fuel might make it so that they could travel from city to city.

He also said companies that produce hydrogen powered vehicles have told him they're "ready to go online to produce these if they had places for them to fuel."

Monson and other legislators were able to see and drive hydrogen-powered fuels at an EERC convention last summer. He drove a Chevy Equinox and couldn't discover any noticeable difference between the hydrogen-powered vehicle and his own Equinox. Representatives from Chevy told Monson that while a hydrogen-powered version of the vehicle would be more expensive than a regular model, they would have to price it competitively.

Monson mentioned several different types of hydrogen-powered vehicles, including a Basin Electric vehicle in Minot that has a combination hydrogen and gasoline internal combustion engine.

In a later interview, Randall Bush of Basin Electric said there are three such vehicles in the state. They were developed as a way to use hydrogen produced from a wind-to-hydrogen research project. All three are 2006 Chevy Silverado trucks. One is stationed at the North Dakota State University Research Center south of Minot.

"We have one of the only (hydrogen) fueling stations in the region," Bush said of the station with the vehicle in Minot.

Another of those trucks is on display at the agronomy show at the State Fairgrounds in Minot this week, Bush said.

According to Monson's testimony, building hydrogen fueling stations would be expensive. Costs could run around $2 million to $2.5 million for each station. The $250,000 could be split among five separate projects or fewer or given to just one station project.

"That isn't much of an incentive, but it's a little bit," Monson said.

"Any assistance in getting these projects started all helps with the development of hydrogen," Bush said when asked whether the proposed legislation could make a difference to the industry.

Questions for Monson included whether he thought tax breaks could supply the same incentives.

Committee member Rep. Louis Pinkerton, D-Minot, said he favored the grants because they could be combined with other funding sources like federal grants.