[A2k] AP: Sen. McCain offers $300 million prize for new auto battery

[Malini Aisola]

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080623/D91FQ6L81.html

Sen. McCain offers $300 million prize for new auto battery

June 23, 2008
By Glen Johnson

PHOENIX (AP) - John McCain hopes to solve the country's energy crisis
with cold hard cash.

The presumed Republican nominee is proposing a $300 million government
prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses
existing technology. The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman
and child in the country, "a small price to pay for helping to break the
back of our oil dependency," McCain said in remarks prepared for
delivery Monday at Fresno State University in California.

McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30 percent of current
costs and have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the
commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."

The Arizona senator is also proposing stiffer fines for automakers who
skirt existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as incentives to
increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol.

In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S.
automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car
they develop and sell.

"In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around
enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure," said
excerpts from McCain's prepared text. "From now on, we will encourage
heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success."

The proposal comes as gasoline has reached a record cost of more than $4
a gallon. That has boosted the price of virtually all goods and
services, sent commuters flocking to public transportation and increased
tensions between the United States and its Middle Eastern oil suppliers.

Last week McCain suggested one way to ease supply concerns would be to
lift a federal ban on offshore oil drilling if individual states want to
allow it. His Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, opposes
that idea, saying it would do nothing to address immediate price concerns.

On Sunday, Obama told a Washington audience he would strengthen
government oversight of energy traders whose futures speculation he
blames in large part for the skyrocketing price of oil.

In his latest speech, McCain expressed exasperation both with the
federal government and the private sector.

He said rising costs during a time of stagnant wages evokes the 1970s
era of "stagflation."

Without blaming his fellow Republicans in the Bush administration
directly, McCain said: "It feels the same today, because the unwise
policies of our government have left America's energy future in the
control of others."

The pork-barrel opponent also blasted "a hodgepodge of incentives" for
the purchase of fuel-efficient cars.

"Different hybrids and natural-gas cars carry different incentives,
ranging from a few hundreds dollars to four grand. They're the handiwork
of lobbyists, with all the inconsistency and irrationality that
involves," McCain said.

Following the speech, McCain was scheduled to attend fundraisers in
Fresno and Santa Barbara, part of a money push that helped the senator
raise a personal record of $21 million last month.




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Malini Aisola

Knowledge Ecology International

1621 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA

Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670 Fax: +1.202.332.2673