Obama Administration Picks Electric Vehicles As The Alt Fuel Winner And Proposes to Cut Clean-Diesel, Fuel-Cell Funding - Huh?
 Electric Vehicles - Who Has Our President Been Listening To? |
SEE ALSO: Electric Vehicles - Solution Or Diversion?
Washington DC February 15, 2011; Jeff Plungis and Angela Greiling Keane writing for Bloomberg reported that the Obama administration proposed ending a clean-diesel grant program and cutting research for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles while spurring the market for electric cars.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s fiscal 2012 budget reduces the Clean Diesel Program’s budget from $80 million in 2010 to zero. The program was reauthorized by Congress for five years and a total of $500 million in December.
“It’s clearly difficult budget times, but it’s hard to imagine a program that delivers more concrete benefits at a lower cost than the diesel-emissions reduction program,” said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a trade group based in Frederick, Maryland.
President Barack Obama is working to realign the U.S. government’s vehicle-technology priorities. His budget proposes diverting funds from a dozen energy-company tax breaks to help put more electric vehicles on the road, doubling the share of electricity from so-called clean energy by 2035 and increasing the efficiency of energy use in buildings by 20 percent.
The budget proposal would transform a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of plug-in electric cars into a rebate at the dealership so purchasers wouldn’t have to wait to claim the credit on tax returns. Obama, in his State of the Union address last month, reiterated his goal of having 1 million electric vehicles, both plug-in and hybrid electric, on U.S. roads in four years.
