Do you support subsidies for improved hybrid car batteries (even if the developer is Exxon-Mobil)?

ByRod Adams

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.

Rod Adams
Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

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