President Barack Obama is doubling down on the administration’s plan to reinvest federal oil-and-gas drilling revenues into next-generation alternative energy technology, unveiled during his State of the Union address last February.
“After years of talking about it, we’re finally poised to take control of our energy future,” Obama said in his weekly address on Saturday, comparing recent increases in gasoline prices “to getting hit with a new tax” at a time when American’s can least afford it.
“The only way we’re going to break this cycle of spiking gas prices for good is to shift our cars and trucks off of oil for good,” the president added.
A key part of that plan, according to the White House, is the creation of an “Energy Security Trust,” in which some offshore drilling royalties would be steered into development of technologies that help curb reliance on oil for transportation.
The money – $2 billion over a decade – would support research into advancing technology around electric vehicles, biofuels, fuel cells, and natural gas-powered vehicles, according to the White House.
Using those funds, via the new energy trust, would allow Washington to “support American ingenuity without adding a dime to our deficit.”
Clean energy technologies, such as vehicles that run on biofuels or natural gas, would let drivers “one day go coast-to-coast without using a drop of oil,” Obama said on Saturday.
