Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday called for the award of a $300 million prize to anyone who can develop a dramatically more efficient car battery. Such new technology would make hybrid or electric cars the standard and break what many have called the oil addiction of the United States.
"I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people by offering a $300 million prize 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," said McCain in a speech on energy security delivered in Fresno, C.A.
"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."
The new technology would be required to deliver a power source at 30 percent of current costs.
As gasoline prices top $4.00 per gallon, oil prices have become a hot topic on the campaign trail ahead of the November presidential election. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that he would close a loophole in current legislation that allows energy traders to getaway with excessive speculation. Leading economists have said such speculation drives up oil prices.
Meanwhile, President George Bush and McCain have supported opening up access to currently restricted offshore drilling prospects in the United States.
"Ninety-seven percent of transportation in America runs on oil. And of all that oil, about 60 percent is used in cars and trucks," said McCain.
America imports about one quarter of its oil from the Middle East and Venezuela.
"When we buy foreign oil from these and other sources, there are many consequences—all of them far-reaching and none of them good," said McCain.
McCain also talked about the uselessness of new federal fuel efficiency standards, which many companies simply break, pay a fine for, and then pass on the cost to car buyers. Instead, McCain highlighted the possibility of ethanol—an organic alcohol-based fuel—playing a major role in the United States' energy future.
"…our government should level the playing field for all alcohol fuels that break the monopoly of gasoline … 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."
Brazil went from about five to over 70 percent of all new vehicles with flex-fuel capacity in just three years, he noted.
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