McCain's Clean Car Challenge gets a $300K push; meanwhile Obama's advisers are tied to ethanol

Republican candidate John McCain is giving a speech today to issue a "Clean Car Challenge" to automakers, according to the Associated Press. If they produce a zero-emissions vehicle, a McCain administration would push to give buyers $5,000 tax credits, he promises.

Also, he says his administration would offer a $300 million prize for development of a new, more powerful battery for hybrid vehicles that surpasses current 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.

Meanwhile the New York Times is reporting that his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, has close ties with the ethanol industry. One of his national campaign co-chairmen, former Sen. Tom Daschle, sits on the board of three ethanol companies. And his lead adviser on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Daschle and former Sen. Bob Dole, another advocate of ethanol.

The two candidates sharply differ on ethanol, with McCain calling for an end to government subsidies while Obama would continue them.

--Craig Pittman

[Associated Press]

Comments

[Chris]

They always promise the world, but we end up with lipstick on a pig.

I'll keep my $1 McCain thank you Sir! Because a better battery has already gotten the Prius to 250mpg.

What he should offer is to give $300 million to the first company that 'SELLS' an AFFORDABLE zero emissions vehicle.

What good is developing it, if it costs $100,000(Telsa Roadster)???

What is the media so afraid of? And if not fear preventing from cutting through the BS, no explanation required.

The big word for this year 2008 election is change. I believe talk is cheap. So I choice to stick with McCain for his actions have prove to me that he stands behind each one of his votes right or wrong. McCain's challenge to create an enviromental safe high powerful hybird battery is wonderful. Eventhou, I am a farmer's wife an the use of ethanol would benefit the farming community. Who's to say that the Ethanol consumpation will not affect our environment in the future. I rather take the risk on the powerful hybird battery than find out that our country is being polluted and it is affect the ground we farm on.

[Tino]

The current wholesale price of ethanol, on a gallon-of-gasoline equivalent, is $3.28 (source: CTRB Energy Management Institute Commodities).

The current wholesale price of gasoline is $1.56 (source: New York Mercantile Exchange).

Thank your Congressman for forcing a product on American drivers that is not only poor for automotive performance, but environmentally unsound (nitrogen runoff, Gulf dead zones, etc), energy inefficient and grossly uneconomic.

If oil prices stay low, I expect Congress to dramatically boost ethanol subsidies to keep supplying us with this fraudulent "energy source".