-Prize money for green car maker / innovator
-Off shore drilling
-$5000 tax rebate if you buy a zero emission vehicle
Three good ideas?
McCain proposes $300M prize for new auto battery - Yahoo! News
FRESNO, Calif. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday that the search for alternatives to the country's dependence on foreign oil is so urgent that he's willing to throw money at it.
The Arizona senator proposed a $300 million prize for whoever can develop a better automobile battery, and $5,000 tax credits for consumers who buy new zero-emission vehicles. The latest proposal is in addition to his support for overturning the federal ban on offshore oil drilling.
"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 in a speech at Fresno State University.
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McCain's energy speech built off of one last week in which he proposed ending a decades-old federal ban on offshore oil drilling. McCain said gasoline prices of more $4-a-gallon makes it imperative the country consider a host of alternatives, including nuclear power and, if the host state approves it, offshore oil drilling.
The $300 million battery bounty amounts to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country. He 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."
McCain said he could envision foreign automakers such as Honda and Toyota being eligible for the prize, since the Japanese companies have large manufacturing plants in the United States.
As for how he would come up with the prize money, the senator said: "I could pay for it by canceling three pork-barrel projects that are unnecessary and unwanted."
McCain also proposed a so-called Clean Car Challenge to encourage U.S. automakers to develop zero-emission vehicles by offering consumers the incentive of a $5,000 tax credit when they buy one.
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Do we like these incentives or should the free market decide?
