what do you think?

[Paul_N]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-campaign24-2008jun24,0,5926016.story

[Paul_N]

Sen. John McCain added an unusual twist to his emerging energy agenda Monday, promising to award a $300-million prize to the inventor of a next-generation battery that could power electric vehicles. The prize amount is small relative to the billions of dollars the federal government spends on other energy industries. The Bush administration has already pledged $1.2 billion toward research on hydrogen fuel cells, a technology that proponents say is 10 or more years from viability.

[coop]

Waste of gov money

There are already private companies working on this. The patents will be worth more than that. No need to give money to spur something already in full force which will have a huge payoff.

[swaggy853]

i think i should try to accomplish something today instead of sit on scr.

[Paul_N]

damn about time coop i've been waiting all day to hear the same thing i thought LOL

[David]

i disagree with coop. kinda. obviously the patent that does what he states is worth basically an unlimited amount of money. 300 million to most is like dreaming of the lotto. I'm sure at one point or another we've all had crazy ideas for an invention but blown them off becuase of money or the fear of failure. 300 million could be the incentive joe smith needs ot build that battery he thought up 10 years ago in college but never built. So i don't think it's a waste, but i think it's more of a political move than anything else.

$5,000 also isn't a huge amount of money when you consider what the cost of a zero emissions car is. The Hydrogen cars that honda is testing in socal cost i believe $100,000 each and they are basically a civic with a hydrogen motor. So $5,000 isn't exactly a huge amount in comparison to the cost of one of these cars..

[coop]

who is funding all this start up money for these joe shmoes to start these projects in their garages which will cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands?

[David]

joe... i understand what your getting at, or atleast think i do. He might as well said he'll give $50, but i don't think thats the point of this announcement.

[82355]

The point of this announcement, is for him to look like he cares about the enviroment.

Martin

[dave]

batteries are insanely complicated feats of the combination of intense chemical and electrical engineering.

[David]

The point of this announcement, is for him to look like he cares about the enviroment.

Martin

[coop]

batteries are insanely complicated feats of the combination of intense chemical and electrical engineering.

so what you are saying is without some startup money its not going to happen?


and therefore the only people that are able to do it are large private companies that once they target it have the market and make billions of dollars?


and therefore the gov is wasting more money?





and yes, this is a statement that you can be 80 years old and think "green"

[dave]

unless you're building carbon nanotubes in your backyard I would suggest giving up.

[millertime]

I agree with coop, the amount of money it would take to come up with this is astounding, however if some college kid did at least come up with the idea he could then negotiate with a private company for that cool 300 mil, idk, just an idea. Yes the patent is worth WAY more than that, but I'm pretty sure I could live the rest of my life on 300 mil and not think twice about selling the idea if I came up with it. It's about getting ppl motivated more than they already are and looking like he does care.

[millertime]

it's a little extra incentive I guess

[Bobby Light]

It could be just one person thinking outside the box that opens up a different way of doing things.

300 million might do that...plus, who is it going to harm if no one does it?

I think its a good incentive.