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The funds are being made available through the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding announcements were Thursday and Friday.
Speaking at Southern California Edison's Electric Vehicle Center, President Barack Obama detailed the plan to support development of next-generation electric vehicles that can get up to 100 miles to the gallon and drive as far as 40 miles without recharging.
Of the $2.4 billion in grants to be made available through the DOE, as much as $1.5 billion will be for U.S. manufacturers to produce high-efficiency batteries and their components; up to $500 million will go to U.S. producers of electric motors and other parts for plug-in cars; and $400 million will go toward development of infrastructure and training for technicians to build and repair electric vehicles.
Obama has set a goal of having a million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015. Taxpayers who buy one can claim a tax credit of as much as $7,500.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu underscored the importance of the program to promote next generation of plug-in hybrids on Friday. And he spoke of the critical need to develop brainpower in the U.S.
"We have to invest in our intellectual capability, because it is the intellectual horsepower of the country that will create new wealth," Chu said in a forum detailed by Marc Gunther.
Chu also announced the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, Calif. The loan guarantee will enable the company to build a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its proprietary cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels.
Solyndra estimates that 3,000 people will be employed in construction and related projects to build the facility, and that completed facility will be the source of 1,000 jobs.
The loan guarantee, which is being supported through the Recovery Act, is the first to be offered under a 2006 DOE program that was established to promote innovative technology. The arrangement involves a conditional commitment that requires Solyndra to meet an equity commitment as well as other conditions prior to closing.
Chu had set a target for the first conditional commitments to be offered by May. He credited the DOE's loan team for accelerating the process and demonstrating "the speed at which the department can operate when barriers to success are removed," the agency said in a statement.
Also on Friday, the EPA announced that state and local governments, nonprofits and tribal agencies can apply for as much as $211 million in grants: $206 million is available for clean diesel projects that are to cut emissions, and $5 million will go toward job training and job creation related to remediation, assessment and preparation of brownfield sites for sustainable reuse. The EPA said it will award as many as a dozen cooperative agreements in brownfield grants of as much as $500,000.
"We take very seriously our job to protect human health and the environment," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told PBS's Tavis Smiley earlier in the week. "We need to earn the trust of the American people again. Scientists need to be brought back to the front of this agency."
Image CC licensed by Flickr user WTL photos
Great green decision making where it counts
This is another green step in the right direction Mr. President. Economic sense is one thing, but a sustainable future is another. The internal combustion engine is archaic and inefficient. Let's remove this and start promoting alternatives. Why not go hybrid, or electric? If you buy one, perhaps your neighbor will too. Live Green Today. Not tomorrow.
Government unsustainable borrowing and spending is not change
The greatest change we should be experiencing is the government not investing in anything. We should get the government out of the investment game. Everything they touch gets screwed up.
Our government is heading down a road of unsustainable borrowing and spending. Our economy and our banking system is based on consumers and organizations taking on a precarious amount of debt.
We have to stop spending somewhere - but everyone has a pet project - including renewable energy - in which to borrow and spend on.
Gasoline will again reach $5 per gallon - that goes without saying. So we'll have to give up our SUV's and notions of personal transportation. So far the efforts of our government have been to keep the personal transportation dream alive - and that's all it is - a dream.
When all this foolish spending ends, it will be up to the private sector to find appropriate solutions. My only hope the federal government won't have completely warped the playing field by then,
this is an investment in our
this is an investment in our future, from an energy perspective and from an economic perspective. What do you think $5 oil will do to the economy if we don't move away from it?
The economy was in shambles before Obama walked into the White House. We've been sinking billions into oil, gas and nuclear subsidies for decades and you see where that got us. Alternative fuels and alternative transportation have been a drop in the ocean. Let's make the right investments for a change.
Unsustainable spending
How odd we've become. We support programs like plug-in cars with unsustainable borrowing and printing of money.
If Obama's huge deficit spending bankrupts the country, will we still see a million plug-in hybrids on the road?