PepsiCo, Inc.

After five years after the original order, PepsiCo ($PEP) has finally received its first batch of the long-awaited Tesla ($TSLA) Semi. Without missing a beat, the Pepsi PR machine sprang into action, touting its new fleet of Tesla Semis as an environmentally friendly investment. The media and public reaction appeared largely positive. This comes despite the primary reason behind Pepsi's decision to order the truck was because of massive federal and state grant payments, which offset most of the costs.

And despite the Tesla Semi being in development for almost a decade, the role out this year has been far from smooth. Over the past few months, multiple images have surfaced showing the Tesla Semi being towed. In addition to this, a voluntary recall was issued on the trucks to fix an issue with the brake valve module. To Tesla’s defense identifying and addressing issues like these is a fairly routine, and necessary part of any new product roll out.

However, what is more concerning is the massive 900 kWh battery pack that comes with the new truck, or more specifically, the infrastructure required to support it. When you consider that this is almost ten-times larger than the battery used in the Tesla Model S, it should come to no surprise that a typical Tesla Supercharger won’t suffice. Because of this, Tesla unveiled a new Mega Charger, capable of charging the truck in as little as an hour.

However, there’s a catch… According to the CEO of TeraWatt, Neha Palmer, each Tesla Semi uses the same amount of energy that a big-box store would use. This should concern California, a place where the power grid is already strained as it is.

Nevertheless, California and the EPA continue full steam ahead with their plan to phase out gas, and diesel trucks, despite electric trucks years from being commercially viable. This presents a unique opportunity for a 3rd type of truck that can help bridge the awkward, policy-induced transition gap: Natural gas trucks.

Natural gas-powered vehicles are the likely answer because not only are the emissions from the vehicles substantially less, but the infrastructure is already in place, with over 1,500 fueling stations across the country already being used by thousands of vehicles.

And it seems lawmakers have noticed this as well. To help incentive this transition, lawmakers introduced HR. 2448 last month. The bipartisan legislation would provide a tax credit for renewable natural gas (RNG). Specifically, it would create a $1.00 per gallon credit for sellers of renewable natural gas used for transportation.

If this bill is successful, there’s several stocks that would be set to benefit from increased demand coming from the tax-credit incentive:

Hyliion ($HYLN) who are one of the few companies capable of producing RNG-powered, Class 8 commercial vehicles, with their Hypertruck ERX expected to roll out later this year.

Clean Energy Fuels ($CLNE) who are one of the leading providers of RNG in the country with over 590 fueling stations in their network.

And UPS ($UPS), which currently has one of the largest RNG-powered fleets in the country and has an agreement with Clean Energy Fuels to purchase 170 million gallons of RNG through 2026, the largest RNG purchase in U.S. history.

Given the potential impact of HR. 2448, we’ll keep a close eye on these companies ahead of the vote. To analyze this yourself, I made a bot that tracks what companies are lobbying for different bills like this, and I made the data public, so to see it yourself, just go to Quiver Quant and click on Behind the Curtain.

Disclosure: The content is for informational purposes only; you should not construe any such information as investment, financial, or other advice. I/We have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.