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.
This has long been a favorite of the Right. At least online. What do you all think? I can hardly be called an objective PoV here.
1 comment:
1) McCain is hardly representative of the Right in general.
2) He's clearly scientifically illiterate, so just like Dubya, his ideas about advanced technology incentives tend to sound... strange.
It is my personal prediction that carbon nanotube based ultracapacitors will replace electrolytic batteries sometime within the next twenty years. Tougher, last longer, smaller energy loss, and you don't need to mess around with lithium or cadmium. Ultracapacitors already exist with energy density in the same ballpark as lithium-ion batteries and power densities much, much higher. Improved versions would not only make electric cars much more attractive, but might also make electric aircraft start to look viable.
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