Do you support subsidies for improved hybrid car batteries (even if the developer is Exxon-Mobil)?
Yesterday I had the chance to read my Wall Street Journal from cover to cover while waiting for a plane. As I often do in such a situation, I paid some attention to the advertisements as well as the articles.
On the cover page of the Marketplace section, there was a footer banner ad about a new hybrid car battery technology that would provide a significant improvement over existing technology. In the same section of the paper, there was a centerfold ad that spread over two full pages discussing the same development.
While I think it is great that such technology is under development, I wonder how much subsidy American taxpayers should provide to Exxon-Mobil, a multinational oil company with annual PROFITS in the past couple of years exceeding $40 BILLION and annual revenues nearing $400 BILLION.
It would seem to me that such a company has adequate resources for battery development, yet I would bet a pretty good chunk of change on the fact that the company has successfully requested some public-private partnership money from the DOE for its development project. See, for example, USABC AWARDS $6.5 MILLION BATTERY TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT TO ENER1’S ENERDEL SUBSIDIARY.
