Obama wants $2 billion from oil industry for clean-energy transportation research
Skift Take
When it comes to smart fuel options for cars, buses, and planes, the U.S. needs to play catch up with Europe and parts of Asia in order to stay competitive and offer both citizens and visitors wold-class modes of transit.
President Barack Obama is pressing Congress to create a $2 billion clean-energy research fund with fees paid by oil and gas producers to help lower U.S. dependence on oil.
Obama will announce the congressional challenge today at the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, one of the Energy Department’s largest labs for scientific and engineering research. The so-called Energy Security Trust would be funded over 10 years from government fees on offshore oil and gas drilling, according to administration officials who asked not to be identified before the president’s speech.
The trust would provide reliable funding for research fo
