Republican presidential contender John McCain gave a speech in Fresno, Calif., today calling for a $300 million prize, paid by the government, to be awarded to the person who can design a better electric car battery.
"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," said McCain. The Republican candidate said the prize would be awarded for "the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost, and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."
He said this would be part of a "Clean Car Challenge" for American automakers that he would create as president. "For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, we will commit a $5,000 tax credit for each and every customer who buys that car." For other vehicles, said McCain, the lower the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit. Right now, we have a "hodgepodge" of tax credits for hybrids and natural-gas cars that range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $4,000, he said.
McCain criticized the current enforcement of automobile fuel-efficiency standards, saying that the penalties for not meeting those standards "are too small to encourage innovation." He also criticized government subsidies for corn-based ethanol as "playing favorites" and pledged to "level the playing field for all alcohol fuels."
"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," he said. "In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure. From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success."
McCain said that high subsidies for corn coupled with tariffs on things like sugarcane-based ethanol from Brazil have hurt consumers and created a barrier to making other sources of ethanol available in the U.S. McCain opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff currently in place for ethanol made from sugarcane in Brazil.
"As taxpayers, we foot the bill for the enormous subsides paid to corn producers," said McCain. "And as consumers, we pay extra at the pump because of government barriers to cheaper products from abroad."
McCain's criticism of ethanol policy comes on the same day that The New York Times published a critique of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's relationship to corn ethanol, an issue that McCain has been playing up as a difference between him and his opponent. As a senator from the country's second-largest corn-producing state, Obama has been a supporter of corn ethanol as an alternative fuel. Obama has said that corn ethanol "ultimately helps our national security, because right now we're sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth."
Obama has said that he supports the tariff on foreign ethanol because it helps move the country toward "energy independence." And in an interview with Grist, he noted that he supports corn ethanol in order to move the country toward other sources.
"Corn-starch ethanol provides a critically important bridge toward energy independence and corn remains a strong part of the domestic biofuels industry," Obama told Grist. "But developing greater volumes of cellulosics is a critical next step in domestic biofuel development."
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Comments View as Flat
Jason D Scorse Posted 4:59 am
23 Jun 2008
The prize idea...
is McCain's first decent idea- he has a few braincells left apparently- good to know.
I teach environmental economics and blog at www.voicesofreason.info.
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sindark Posted 5:22 am
23 Jun 2008
Level playing field for whom?
What other alcohol fuels are out there to compete with corn ethanol?
a sibilant intake of breath
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greentiger Posted 5:40 am
23 Jun 2008
re: Level playing field for whom?
Butanol for one is being researched heavily by BP and DuPont (and some academic labs I've seen). It even has its own wiki page. One of the big selling points is that it can utilize the current gasoline pipeline infrastructure.
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sindark Posted 6:12 am
23 Jun 2008
Butanol
Does butanol have the same fundamental problems as ethanol, namely that it is made from food crops using hydrocarbon-dependent agricultural techniques?
a sibilant intake of breath
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Gorsegrower Posted 8:23 am
23 Jun 2008
Energy prize?
I wonder who/what will provide the $300 million. If it will take an act of Congress, this promise could be illusory.
I'm working on a solution, but it's not a battery. Nor is it a way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, except by preventing its formation.
It's also not a wondrous new commercially viable ideal automobile, ala X-prize.
What's with these so-called offers?
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greentiger Posted 8:26 am
23 Jun 2008
re: butanol
Yeah more or less. I suppose you don't "require" 'hydrocarbon-dependent agricultural techniques'; but yeah. I forget the nitty gritty details about the biochemical pathways involved (somewhat more complicated than EtOH (4 carbons vs. 2)), but any alcohol biofuel that I am aware of essentially involves using a sugar feed to a microbial (e.g. yeast or e. coli).
Long story short, some people think it will be a more viable alternative fuel than ethanol. I don't know a good way of getting alcohols without using a sugar feed from cellulose or simpler plant-produced sugars. In the scope of 'biofuels', however, I suppose algae-produced biodiesel does not necessitate typical farming practices--just CO2, sunlight, water and some nutrients.
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timbuktu Posted 9:10 am
23 Jun 2008
Better battery?
I wonder what the specific standard will be for the "better battery" that will win the cash prize? Feel Good Cars in Toronto, and a company in Texas have produced a significantly more efficient battery and a battery-like energy storage device, respectively. See article
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sindark Posted 9:21 am
23 Jun 2008
Li-ion flaw
Hopefully, the better battery will not be prone to catching fire or exploding when heated or punctured.
a sibilant intake of breath
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PermieWriter Posted 9:22 am
23 Jun 2008
Re: Energy prize?
What part of "campaign promise" don't you understand?
Lovely idea, though. Even if the government doesn't come through with the cash, I'm sure the promise will spur some budding young chemists.
Eat what you grow, grow what you eat
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WWAGD?! Posted 11:35 am
23 Jun 2008
Science Doesn't Worship The Dollar
First they torture society by raising gas prices. Then they offer a "prize".
The carrot and the stick.
But you know what? Chaaaaaaaa...it don't work that way.
Innovation and invention are what change economics...not the other way around. We engineers proceed by the inherent pace of technology and discovery.
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Pangolin Posted 12:19 pm
23 Jun 2008
and a FREE PONY!!!
McCain is doing his best to sound like he has a useful idea without actually proposing violations of the laws of physics. At this point any speech that tells the American public that they will ever see gas at even $2/gal to fuel their giant SUV's should be shelved next to Thomas the Tank Engine and Wild Things in the bookstore.
The petroleum age is over and it will be all we can do to eke out our last gasps of fuel to make it through the transition. So all the politicians run around spouting 'happy talk', Saudi Arabia makes repeated promises to increase production, and the price still goes up.
The cheap oil is gone. All the kings horses and all the kings men will not make that quad-cab, Ford F-250 in your driveway anything more than expensive scrap in a few years.
Put the Carbon Back
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ThomC Posted 12:42 pm
23 Jun 2008
Other alcohols
By other alcohols I think he means
-Coal to ethanol
-Gas to ethanol
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GreyFlcn Posted 1:03 pm
23 Jun 2008
Thats stupid
Thats stupid.
We already have pretty damned good batteries.
The real issue is cost.
And like cars, that price isn't going to come down without significant economies of scale.
_
While McCain's proposal may seem generous, it does absolutely nothing to create a low-risk finance structure to encourage building new battery manufacturing plants, or to create a larger market for purchasing electric cars.
_
"Cart before the Horse" isn't much of a transportation strategy.....
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Biodiversivist Posted 3:42 pm
23 Jun 2008
Will have to work on Obama's ethanol
pandering once he gets into office.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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amazingdrx Posted 4:24 pm
23 Jun 2008
Barack's response
What advice would you give Barack on a response to McCain's dopey idea, if you were his energy advisor?
I would tell him to take the example McCain gives, 300 million, and use it in a better way.
Order 100 million dollars worth of plugin hybrid vehicles, to replace government fleet vehicles, from each of the 3 remaining US automakers. Have them use a battery/electric drivetrain consortium to standardize the design.
And get US corporations to join in those mass orders to replace their vehicle fleets.
We have the batteries and all the technology, so let's get with it. Get that price down with mass orders and mass production so consumers can afford them. No great majical breakthrough contest is needed. Just do it.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 4:29 pm
23 Jun 2008
And
Get the 300 million from cuts in subsidies for oil companies.
Specify a plugin hybrid conversion of existing front wheel drive economy models, with the rear axle battery plugin electric drive.
This design allows car makers to produce plugin hybrids with the least changes in production lines and capital investment. It also has the added benefit of being useful to convert used cars, saving time, money, and resources in converting the nation's cars to run mainly on plugin power.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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John former Marine Posted 11:48 pm
23 Jun 2008
and the rest of the problem?
How much of the problem is "cars" and how much of the problem will be solved with a battery? I guess his energy policy is gonna be prize money?
Shu pas a vende.
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Solar John Posted 8:37 am
24 Jun 2008
Priorities are wrong
What we REALLY need is to replace the energy we get from fossil fuels. A better use of that money would be a prize for advances in sustainable energy production, such as solar or wind. But I guess we shouldn't expect a politician to know that.
Solar John
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