By
Jillian Hughes /
CBS News/ March 15, 2013, 6:00 AM
Obama to unveil alternative energy proposal
President Obama today will urge
Congress to establish a research fund for transportation and fuel
alternatives, called an Energy Security Trust, according to White House
officials.
The president will tour and give remarks at
Argonne National Laboratory just outside of Chicago, a Department of
Energy facility for scientific research that specializes in advanced
battery production. He will propose setting aside $2 billion over the
next 10 years for an Energy Security Trust, which aims to support
research and development for electric vehicles, domestic biofuels, fuel
cells and U.S.-produced natural gas.
White House officials say the Mr. Obama's proposal would be
paid for with royalties generated from off-shore drilling in federal
waters and with revenues generated from permitting reforms proposed in
the administration's new budget. Officials emphasized the royalties
would not come from new drilling and development projects, only
development already included in their current 5-year plan.
The
president initially proposed the idea last month in his State of the
Union address saying his goal with the Energy Security Trust was to "to
shift our cars and trucks off oil for good."
"I also want
to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology
that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and our
water," he said.
Potential bipartisan support for the
idea may come from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who, following the
State of the Union Address, released a statement saying the Energy
Security Trust was "an idea [she] may agree with," and that she
"intend[s] to get to work on this as soon as possible."
White
House officials said they had reached out to both Murkowski and Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in crafting the proposal and feel that the Energy
Security Trust is a bipartisan idea where conversations on Capitol Hill
will be "fruitful."
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