Obama looks to Congress to earmark US$2bn for clean fuel car plan
Fri 15 March 2013
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The United States President, Barack Obama, has called on the US Congress to support a plan to use revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling to fund research into advanced vehicle technologies. Under proposals for a new Energy Security Trust, the President wants to funnel $2 billion in revenue over the next 10 years from federal oil and natural gas leases.
Speaking in Chicago, President Obama reiterated the Energy Security Trust proposal he made in his State of the Union speech in February. The plan is likely to garner support from business and bipartisan politicians, although Republicans in Congress are expected to criticise the measure as an unfair tax on energy producers.
“We can support scientists who are designing new engines that are more energy efficient; support scientists that are developing cheaper batteries that can go farther on a single charge; support scientists and engineers that are devising new ways to fuel our cars and trucks with new sources of clean energy – like advanced biofuels and natural gas – so drivers can one day go coast to coast without using a drop of oil,” the President said.
President Obama will present the measure as a segment of his comprehensive energy strategy for the US, which includes oil and gas, nuclear energy, fossil fuel alternatives, and clean energy sources like wind and geothermal. There are questions over whether the President can put his proposals into action in the face of opposition from the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, whose Energy and Commerce Committee is already pressing the Environmental Protection Agency for details of its clean energy plans which, it says, will add to the regulatory burdeon on US businesses.
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