John McCain, after facing defeat on a number of new bills related to CAFE and the US auto industry did something a little radical. He is now pushing through legislation that would award a $300 million prize for the development of battery packs that make a revolutionary improvement over todays designs. Those of you who aren’t intimate with the chemistry of batteries, there are a number of very serious problems with the designs of NiMH, and Lithium Ion batteries are super expensive to produce due to the materials involved and production process.

I really like this sort of x-prize approach to innovation, I have remarked once or twice how the US Federal Grant system is flawed and a waste of money for short term goals. This sort of approach will give the private sector a chance to get real incentive to make leaps in technology.

I think that one of the real ways out of the energy crisis we have today is real leadership from our administration. What McCain did here is a drop in the bucket, I am talking FDR-style  ‘lets rally the nation and have every household give up sugar’ sort of leadership. That kind of leadership, with the right incentives, innovators, and operational backup have done great things for this country. They have built the atomic bomb, defeated fascism, and sent men to the moon. We need a nation wide effort to make real progress on developing clean, renewable, and cheap energy in order to save our economy.

My hope is that one of the Presendential candidates is secretly hiding this sort of effort, because I think if they came right out and said it, they would be thought of careless radicals and wouldn’t get a majority share of the vote. The problem with people (voters) is that they only care about themselfs, RIGHT NOW. Nobody ever looks at giving up something now for the long term. It makes me sad.