President Obama proposes using oil revenue to fund clean energy research

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Speaking at Argonne National Laboratory, President Obama proposed an “Energy Security Trust Fund.” This fund would be meant to funnel $2 billion in new revenue from offshore oil drilling into funding for research into clean energy technology such as electrical car batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and cleaner biofuels. The idea was initially proposed by a group called Securing America’s Future Energy or SAFE.

“The reason so many different people – from the private sector, the public sector, our military – support this idea is because it’s not just about saving money, it’s also about saving the environment. But it’s also about our national security,” Obama said. “This is not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea; this is just a smart idea, and we should be taking [SAFE’s] advice.”

SAFE’s original version of the plan would create a fund with $5 billion, but with the current political war over budget cuts, Obama has proposed a number significantly below that.

“The only way to really break this cycle of spiking gas prices, the only way to break that cycle for good, is to shift our cars entirely — our cars and trucks — off oil,” the president said. “It’s not just about saving money. It’s also about saving the environment. But it’s also about our national security.”

“It’s not a Democratic idea or a Republican idea,” he added. “It’s just a smart idea.”

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