President Barack Obama toured a California electric car plant and announced a $2.4bn grant programme to develop plug-in vehicles. Obama visited the Southern California Edison electric vehicle technical centre, one of two test sites approved by the US department of energy to investigate electric car performance. Managed by one of the largest electric utilities in the country, the 16-year-old facility researches battery-powered and hybrid engines, and studies the potential impacts of having massive numbers of electric vehicles taking power from conventional utility networks.
The facility says its fleet of battery-electric vehicles have logged more than 17m "tailpipe-emission-free miles". It is likely to be a major recipient of federal research dollars under Obama's programmes. "The problem's not a lack of technology - you're producing the technology right here - the problem is, for decades we've avoided what we must do as a nation to turn challenge into opportunity," Obama said.
Under George Bush's energy policy, which was based almost solely on exploitation of fossil fuels, the proportion of US energy derived from renewable sources grew only 0.7 percentage points between 2003 and 2007, to 6.8% of total energy consumption.
The facility says its fleet of battery-electric vehicles have logged more than 17m "tailpipe-emission-free miles". It is likely to be a major recipient of federal research dollars under Obama's programmes. "The problem's not a lack of technology - you're producing the technology right here - the problem is, for decades we've avoided what we must do as a nation to turn challenge into opportunity," Obama said.
Under George Bush's energy policy, which was based almost solely on exploitation of fossil fuels, the proportion of US energy derived from renewable sources grew only 0.7 percentage points between 2003 and 2007, to 6.8% of total energy consumption.
Obama spoke as he and his treasury secretary Timothy Geithner were being pummeled in Washington by Republicans over large bonuses paid to executives at bail-out insurance company AIG.