Remember John McCain’s energy policy proposal to have a contest for developing better batteries for hybrid cars.

His proposal was to award something like $350,000,000.00 to the company that developed a new battery to be used in plug-in hybrid cars.  When combined with Drill, Baby, Drill and the usual oil, gas and coal industry propaganda, it sounded pretty lame.  For the most part, McCain was talking about continuing our energy policy of the last 50 years, CHEAP GAS!!

But now it turns out that this battery building contest may have been more than a greenwash.

An article in the November 24, 2008 issue of Automotive News has this headline:

Japan poised to control key batteries

Panasonic-Sanyo deal yet another worry for Detroit 3

As if General Motors, Ford and Chrysler didn’t have enough to worry about, the stars are aligning for them to be pulling their hair out over another issue caused by sleeping at the switch.

From the same Automotive News article:

“The worry is that America’s reliance on imported oil will be supplanted by reliance on imported batteries”.

A combined Panasonic/Sanyo will control a majority of the market for both the nickel metal hydride batteries, used in current hybrids, and the lithium ion batteries that will be the next automotive power source.  Sanyo is already the top producer of lithium ion batteries for cellphones, computers and the like and Panasonic produces 83% of the nickel metal hydride batteries used in vehicles today.

Here are some videos about current hybrids and electric cars:

Electric cars with Nickel Metal Hydride batteries you can buy today

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-1-v-107.html

The Tesla Sports Car that uses Lithium Ion batteries

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-1-v-41.html

In the spirit of taking good ideas no matter which side of the aisle they come from, the Obama clean up crew (lots to clean up after eight years) should think seriously about McCain’s battery contest proposal.

Do they think we’re stupid?

It is all the rage in Washington to talk about energy independence.  As a matter of fact, Presidents have been talking about it as far back as Nixon.  Watch this video to see how easy it is to use energy independence as a talking point from the right or the left.

http://endependence.info/research/videos-c-12-v-65.html

So, what has happened since 1974?  We are dependent on foreign countries for close to 70% of our transportation sector energy (oil).   All they did was talk, not act.

The spike in oil prices this past summer made for more good political palaver.

Drill, baby, drill

How can a country with 3% of the world’s oil supply that uses 25% of the world’s oil drill itself to energy independence?

Then there is “all of the above” rhetoric.  Clean coal, nuclear, wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, hybrid electric cars.

This is another political pander.  Where is conservation is this mix?  What the heck is clean coal?  Nuclear plants take years to build, we don’t have a way to dispose of the radioactive waste and they cost hundreds of millions of dollars to decommission?

Check out these sites to find out about nuclear waste storage and decommissioning issues:

http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/nuclear_waste_storage/nuclear_waste_storage.html

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/waste.html

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/decommissioning.html

This is a chance for the people. business and government to work together to merge the two goals of energy independence and ending dependence on polluting fuel.  Solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, conservation, plant waste biofuels, electric cars.  These are the things we must do to achieve endependence.

Endependence=energy independence

that ends dependence on polluting fuels.