White House backs $4.4B boost for natural-gas, electric vehicles

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington -- The White House endorsed a plan by Senate Democrats to spend $4 billion boosting natural-gas-powered vehicles and another $400 million on electric vehicles.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told a group of reporters in his office today that the administration backed plans by Senate Democrats to spend money to offer rebates for compressed natural gas vehicles and additional electric vehicle efforts.

"The Senate bill has natural gas and electric vehicle components that the president certainly believes are important to continuing progress we've made," Gibbs said, saying the president will discuss the Senate Democrats' energy bill on Friday in Detroit.

The $15 billion also includes provisions on oil spill liability and drilling, and home efficiency measures.

As a candidate in 2008, President Barack Obama called for 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015 and he has backed a number of efforts to speed electric vehicles, including $2.4 billion awarded last August in battery and electric vehicle grants.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said she had pushed to get electric vehicle funding in the Senate Democrats' bill. Reid initially last week didn't have it in his measure.

"Natural gas is a good short-term bridge," Stabenow said in an interview. "When the initial bill had natural gas only, it was important to me to push to get the electric vehicle provisions in it."

She said the final split of funds between natural gas and electric vehicles could change in the final version of an energy bill. "We've got to make sure electric vehicles is one of the things we are making a priority," she said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, objected to the fact that Democrats pay for the additional funding for vehicle research by boosting an $.08 per barrel fee on all oil sales to $.49 per barrel.

Gibbs also talked about Obama's planned trip to Detroit on Friday to two auto plants -- General Motors Co.'s Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant and Chrysler Group LLC's Jefferson North Assembly plant. He called Detroit "the spiritual home of the auto industry."

Obama will tout his decision to rescue GM and Chrysler with another $45 billion bailout and government-sponsored bankruptcies. "The president has had to take his lumps for his decision, and those that were on the other side of this ledger will get an opportunity to explain theirs," Gibbs said.

dshepardson@detnews.com (202) 662-8735