Obama Unveils $2.4 billion Grant Program To Aid Electric Cars

Obama unveils $2.4-billion grant program to aid electric cars
In Pomona, Obama visits an electric-vehicle testing center and announces a program for companies to compete for grant money. He pledges to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015.
By Maeve Reston
maeve.reston@latimes.com
March 19, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-pomona20-2009mar20,0,4688845.story

Reporting from Pomona -- On the second day of his tour of Southern California, President Obama highlighted his environmental jobs agenda with a visit to an electric-vehicle testing facility in Pomona, where he announced a $2.4-billion competitive grant program to make the electric vehicles more widely available.

Obama's appearance at the Edison International facility, about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles, was part of a broader push for his $3.5-trillion budget, which he has been selling to voters at campaign-style town halls Wednesday and today in Orange County and Los Angeles. Later today, he will make an appearance on " The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

He alluded to recent criticism by Republicans -- some of whom have said his plans are too costly and in some cases misguided -- when he described the California trip as a welcome reprieve from Washington.

He joked to his audience in his opening remarks at Edison that it was "always nice to get out of Washington for a little bit, recharge your batteries."

In his low-key speech before about 100 Edison employees and students from nearby Village Academy High School, Obama highlighted his recovery plan, which he says would create 400,000 jobs in California, and expressed concern about the "devastating impact" of the foreclosure crisis on the state.

But he focused primarily on his proposals to create new jobs in green technologies and to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, noting that the U.S. is importing more oil than it was on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Even as our economy has been transformed by new forms of technology, our electric grid looks largely the same as it did half a century ago," Obama said. "So we have a choice to make. We can remain one of the world's leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world's leading exporter of renewable energy."

The president renewed his commitment to doubling the country's supply of renewable energy over the next few years -- including spending $11 billion upgrading the nation's power grid to ease the delivery of renewable energy across the country, and $15 million to help develop green technologies such as solar and wind power, and new coal technologies.

As a receptive audience of engineers and workers cheered his plans, Obama pledged to put a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015, and highlighted his offer of up to $7,500 in tax credits for Americans who purchase electric vehicles.

The new $2.4-billion grant program, which would be part of his recovery program, would ask companies to compete for federal money to increase the manufacturing of batteries and parts used in the electric cars.

Before speaking to the crowd gathered on the factory floor of the Electric Vehicle Technical Center this morning, the president spent about 20 minutes touring the facility with Edison International's CEO and a top engineer.

After viewing the company's model for a "garage of the future" -- where an electric car battery would be charged each night with energy drawn from solar panels on the garage roof -- Obama toured the battery-testing center and questioned engineers about what government could do to help advance the technologies.

Just before heading to Los Angeles, Obama met privately with the students from an Advanced Placement Literature class at Pomona's Village Academy High School. The class produced a video about the personal impact the economy and foreclosure crisis had had on their families lives.

The students, with help from the school's public relations firm, drew the attention of the White House after they put the video up on YouTube. Obama mentioned the students in a speech earlier this month.

Before the meeting, Yvonne Bojorquez, a junior who was mentioned by name in Obama's speech, said she was still shocked the video had reached the president and that they would have a chance to meet him.

"I just want to say thanks for listening. That was our first goal from the beginning and it's very awesome to know that he's someone we can actually reach -- that it's not impossible to get ahold of him," Bojorquez said.