Obama seeks $2bn in clean-fuels funding from oil
President Obama spoke Friday at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois, on his plan for financing clean-fuels projects.
The president hopes to funnel $2 billion (B) in revenue over the next 10 years from federal oil and natural gas leases into research on alternative-fuel vehicles.
The plan is likely to garner support from business and bipartisan politicians, although Republicans in Congress are expected to criticize the measure as an unfair tax on energy producers.
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.
The White House noted that the $2 B in funding will come from growth in drilling revenues over the next decade and will not be implemented as a new tax.
The New York Times reported, "Mr. Obama has given up on moving comprehensive climate change legislation through Congress and has ruled out a carbon tax as a way to finance the development of alternative energy sources, so he is pursuing smaller-scale projects that do not require new sources of revenue. The Energy Security Trust, as he calls his proposal to shift oil and gas royalties to alternative energy research, is one of those projects."
Further information on the White House's energy initiative can be found in this article.
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