The Obama Administration is calling on Congress to establish a new Energy Security Trust, designed to invest in research making the technologies of the future cheaper and better – technologies that will protect Americans from spikes in gas prices and “allow us to run our cars and trucks on electricity or homegrown fuels.”
The President’s proposal sets aside $2 billion over 10 years and will support research into a range of cost-effective technologies, like advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, fuel cells, and domestically produced natural gas. The mandatory funds would be set aside from royalty revenues generated by oil and gas development in Federal waters of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), already included in the administration’s five year plan. These revenues are projected to increase over the next several years based on a combination of leasing, production, and price trends, with additional revenues potentially generated as a result of reforms being proposed in the FY 2014 Budget. The Trust is paid for within the context of the overall budget.
President Obama’s plan challenges Americans to double renewable electricity generation again by 2020. In order to do so, the President called on Congress to make the renewable energy Production Tax Credit permanent and refundable, which will provide incentive and certainty for investments in new clean energy.
As part of a $375 million investment in cleaner energy from fossil fuels, the President’s budget includes significant funding for clean coal technology and a new $25 million prize for the first, natural gas combined cycle power plant to integrate carbon capture and storage.
Other aspects of the President’s plan support State governments that implement effective policies to cut energy waste and modernize the grid, and modernize utility regulations to encourage cost-effective investments in efficiency like combined heat and power, clean distributed generation, and demand response resources.