McCain proposes $300 million car battery contest

Presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Monday proposed a $300 million prize to develop a car battery that will "leapfrog" today's plug-in hybrids.

In an energy policy speech at Fresno State University in California, McCain also called for an overhaul to existing policies that favor domestic ethanol production--one of the biggest differences he has with his expected opponent, Senator Barack Obama.

Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain

(Credit: McCain's Senate site)

McCain said that, if elected, his administration would issue a Clean Car Challenge that would give give a $5,000 tax credit to people who purchase "zero-emissions cars."

There would be a sliding scale so that vehicles, regardless of type, with lower carbon dioxide emissions will have larger tax credits.

His $300 million car battery prize is meant to spur creativity among automakers to make energy-efficient products.

"This is one dollar for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.--a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency--and should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs," he said.

Diverging ethanol plans
In the same speech, McCain repeated his opposition to policies that encourage corn-ethanol and said the U.S. should eliminate a tariff on ethanol from Brazil because it hinders free trade.

He said he would provide incentives to automakers to manufacture flex-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol or gasoline. He said Brazil, which gets about half of its auto fuel from sugar cane ethanol, has shown that a country can change its fuel mix in just a few years.

"Instead of playing favorites, our government should level the playing field for all alcohol fuels that break the monopoly of gasoline, lowering both gasoline prices and carbon emissions. And this can be done with a simple federal standard to hasten the conversion of all new vehicles in America to flex-fuel technology--allowing drivers to use alcohol fuels instead of gas in their cars," he said.

By contrast, Senator Obama is in favor of continued supportive ethanol policies.

The New York Times on Monday detailed the Illinois senator's close ties to ethanol, including maintaining Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader who now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies, as an adviser.

Domestically producing ethanol "ultimately helps our national security, because right now we're sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth," the Times quoted Obama saying during a campaign stop last August.

[Alba-tross]

Hasn't Tesla Motors already created a lithium-ion battery system for their car? Their Energy Storage System (ESS) can travel about 220 miles and power the Tesla from 0-60 in under 4secs.

http://www.teslamotors.com/efficiency/how_it_works.php

[franklynch]

Funny thing is a Democrat published the contest a year ago for a battery that would be economically feasible for mid-priced cars and mass production, but Obama is too stupid to embarrass McCain about stealing the contest from a Democrat at http://www.franklynch.org/plug_in_cars.htm

[harrykrishnah]

That car is over 100K. Not many can afford that. Besides, there are even better choices than that car but they're all far too expensive to manufacture. I think he's looking for someone to invent something that would be affordable to produce and sell for what's compareable to the cost of most cars today.

[Alba-tross]

The car is expensive because it is a high performance sports car, not because of the battery. Tesla Motors is planning a sedan in the $50,000 range soon and eventually less expensive models.

[superbrain04]

What about hydrogen?

[mrwater]

I'm not sure this answers your question, but hydrogen should be thought of as a form of energy storage. A major problem with hydrogen is not having a distribution infrastructure, as we do with electricity. It can be produced by the electrolysis of water (using electricity) but presently is mostly produced using natural gas. Maybe someone else can comment on hydrogen fuel cells and whether incentives (such as the $300 million prize) would make the same sense (or lack thereof).

[trboyden]

This is just an attempt to bring younger / environmental voters to the republican side, no one's ever seeing that 300 million except the oil companies or Iraq.

Electric is the way to go though, but we also need a national high-speed (read Maglev) train system to replace the airlines that are circling the drain. In 5-10 years airflight will be unaffordable - you think we're in a crisis now, you ain't seen nothing yet.

[totocalimero]

Why is it the job of the federal government to distribute tax payers money? Come on, there is a HUGE market to develop alternative sources of energy, we all agree on that.

Let capitalists work on this with private money. Venture firms will gladly invest (and they already do!) hundreds of millions of dollars into start ups working on this specific question. The reward for them is obviously being able to flood the market with their new technology and make tons of money in the process.

But please, leave the government out of the equation. People working for the Feds don't care (it's not their money) are incompetent (they are bureaucrats, not engineers nor business men nor investors) and they have no incentive to succeed (whether the project is successful or not, it will have no impact on them.)

As some readers have posted above, this looks more like a gimmick to make it sound like the Republicans really want to have a new source of energy to compete with fossil fuels, which is highly doubtful since their main contributors are currently making a killing by selling gas in the US.

[mrwater]

It makes total sense for the government to apply incentives to the so-called free market in this case. The effort deserves far more money because of its national security and environmental implications, and those are things the marketplace is not presently capable of rewarding. The marketplace may reward entrepreneurs for better batteries, but not in proportion to their security and environmental implications.

Offering a prize would not be the same as turning the competitors into government employees.

[jemiller0]

John McCain is alright with spending BILLIONS a month in Iraq. We are already 10 trillion in debt. And you're complaining about 300 million to develop next generation battery technology? I would rather spend it on that than **** it away on an imaginary threat.

[Crankypaul]

I love how politicians try and make it appear that with enough money anything is possible. The comment makes it seem that anyone, including any of us here, can go into our basements and garages and within a few months of screwing around, will develop a technology that huge companies have been working on for years. Don't think the Energizer Bunny wouldn't have a better product if it were more practical to develop.

And the offshore drilling myth is another artificial cure all. There aren't enough ships and rigs available and won't be for another 10 years, not to mention that the oil companies haven't finished looking around in areas already open and considered to be lucrative. It's just another political smoke screen, like WMD's.

[cstilesjohnson]

Improved battery technologies supported by the government for transportation technologies could also be spun-off to laptops, cellphones, PDAs, implantable medical devices powered by batteries, etc.. Everyone benefits from advanced battery technologies. New materials (chemicals) in the battery are required. What we need is a Manhattan size project to overcome the barriers. Independence from foreign oil will also require that we go nuclear to power the cars overnight without green-house gas emissions. Technologies to improve nuclear issues of waste and stabilization are ongoing at many of our national laboratories and alos need increase support from Washington. I know that Obama is pro-nuclear. He better be because the state he is from is about 70-80% powered by nuclear energy.

[franklynch]

A year ago July 20 2007 the contest for a better electric care battery was invented and posted at http://www.franklynch.org/plug_in_cars.htm The amusement value is twofold:

First McCain is so lacking in ideas that he has to steal ideas from an obscure tho ingenious Democrat Presidential candidate, and

Second- Obama is so unconscious that he is failing to make political hay by embarassing McCain for stealing Democrat's ideas.

Maybe www.franklynch.org should run for president as an independent since both Obama and McCain dont appear qualified