New Manhattan Project for Energy Independence

On June 12, 2008, Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia introduced H.R. 6260, New Manhattan Project for Energy Independence. In this bill Forbes outlines a series of prizes, similar to the X-PRIZE, which would be awarded to a private entity, which completed one of seven tasks related to achieving energy independence:

• A electric vehicle that costs no more than 10% more than a normal car that has equal performance, can travel 750 miles between refueling and get at least 70 MPG if it is gasoline powered. (500 million dollars)
• A green building that uses 50% of the energy of a similar building and can be reproduced anywhere and costs no more than 15% more than a traditional building. (250 million dollars)
• A solar power plant that generates 300 megawatts of power at a cost of 10 cents/kilowatt-hour. (250 million dollars)
• A biofuel that when mass-produced costs only 105% as the energy equivalent of gasoline. (1 billion dollars)
• A carbon sequestration system that only adds 15% to the cost of the power and will store the CO₂ for 5000 years (1 billion dollars)
• A nuclear waste solution, which will remediate the waste so that it will not be harmful for at least 5000 years (1 billion dollars).
• A sustainable fusion power plant that can produce 300 megawatts (10 billion dollars).

The bill includes 14 billion dollars in prizes and 10 billion dollars in grants. It also seeks to establish a summit to discuss the challenge of energy independence and a commission to create a set of recommendations to fulfill the goal of becoming 50% energy independent within 10 years and fully independent in 20 years.

The bill was cosponsored by Rep. Randy Kuhl and Rep. Frank Wolf. As of July 1, 2008, the bill was referred to the United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

On June 26, 2009, the bill was offered as an amendment in the nature of a substitute for the Waxman/Markey-sponsored American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The bill was rejected by the House of Representatives 255-172.

See also

• Energy security
• Energy Victory
• Hirsch report
• Mitigation of peak oil
• Pickens Plan
• Who killed the electric car?

External links

• Library of Congress Page H.R. 6260