White House backs $4.4 billion bill for natural gas, electric-cars
In the latest indicator of the current administration’s dedication to green technology, the White House endorsed a plan by Senate Democrats to spend $4.4 billion on natural-gas-powered vehicle technology, and another $400 million on electric vehicles.
The money will be used to offer rebates for compressed natural gas vehicles, and additional electric vehicle efforts.
During his candidacy in 2008, President Obama urged for 1 million plug-in hybrids to be on the road by 2015, and has backed a number of efforts to effectuate that vision.
The original bill only contained funding for the natural-gas program, but it was at the behest of Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, that funding for electric vehicle technology was added. “Natural gas is a good short-term bridge,” Stabenow said in an interview. “When the initial bill had natural gas only, it was important to me to push to get the electric vehicle provisions in it.”
Though many details of the bill have been hashed out, it is not final and we could see a change in the split of funding between natural-gas and electric vehicle technologies. So far, the plan is to pay for the funding by increasing the per barrel fee by $.08, making the total fee $.49.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: Detroit News