What is the benefit to society of Battery Building Obama Style?

Hmmm.... why was GPS developed?

The free market didn't build our roads, nor did it supply much of our electricity or water supplies. Investing in green energy is the smart thing to do.

Huh? The Japanese government has been subsidizing the purchase of hybrids since 1996. Is it still a "private market" when the government pays half the cost of every hybrid car sold, and gives people who drive hybrids a 50% discount on their taxes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gove...cles#Japan

And that 100MPG tesla will still cost 100,000 dollars.

In typical Obama fashion, you're comparing apples to oranges.

America has trillions of barrels of oils.... Japan has nothing.

The free market didn't build our roads, nor did it supply much of our electricity or water supplies. Investing in green energy is the smart thing to do.

Much of our high tech came from military spending, which was vastly more expensive than civilian funding. And there was no shortage of multi-billion dollar failures in military weapons programs.

No, the free market didn't. The free market necessitated the need to build roads.

In Pocahantas days, people would travel on common routes between villages to trade their goods and services...... basic free market stuff.

The government did not build the vast interstate system and then tell private industry to figure out how to use it. It's a lot like airplanes. The FAA was not created and then civilians were charged with finding a way to making a flying object.

And let's be honest, if Obama wants to credit the US government for creating the internet, the real reason the internet was created was to vaporize fellow human beings with our nukes in case through redundant and multi-path systems.... namely the Soviets.

And let's be honest, if Obama wants to credit the US government for creating the internet, the real reason the internet was created was to vaporize fellow human beings with our nukes in case through redundant and multi-path systems.... namely the Soviets.

The Internet did have a parent in a program called ARPANET, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. The United States Department of Defense developed ARPANET in 1969 as a network for organizations involved in defense research and as a secure communications system that would also survive attack.

Would you believe me if I told you that the oil companies are part of a conspiracy to develop advanced energy technologies so that they can patent them and keep them from reaching the market, and that they buy up patents to keep green energy off the road?

The Prius uses an excellent battery technology called Nickel Metal Hydride. But no plug-in electric vehicle can use that technology. Chevron won't allow it. The oil companies want to keep us oil dependent.

It's true:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pa..._batteries

It's not the first time:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr...ar_scandal

My concern is, that at this rate, the free market won't necessitate it until it is too late.
The future doesn't look bright for our dependence on foreign oil.

HOUSTON, Oct. 3, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives, announced at the inaugural Natural Gas for High Horsepower Applications (HHP) Summit on Sept. 27 its intentions to go 'all-in' on natural gas and produce even more natural gas-fueled equipment and engines for a variety of applications. Joel Feucht, Caterpillar's director of gas engine strategy for the energy and power systems businesses, made the announcement during his keynote address at HHP Summit 2012, a first-of-its-kind event that examined the economic and environmental benefits of using the clean-burning, domestically abundant natural gas in fuel-hungry high horsepower applications.

Would you believe me if I told you that the oil companies are part of a conspiracy to develop advanced energy technologies so that they can patent them and keep them from reaching the market, and that they buy up patents to keep green energy off the road?

The Prius uses an excellent battery technology called Nickel Metal Hydride. But no plug-in electric vehicle can use that technology. Chevron won't allow it. The oil companies want to keep us oil dependent.

It's true:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pa..._batteries

In her 2007 book Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, Sherry Boschert argues that large-format NiMH batteries (i.e., 25 amp-hours or more) are commercially viable but that Cobasys would only accept very large orders (more than 10,000) for these batteries. The effect is that this policy precludes small companies and individuals from buying them. It also precludes larger auto manufacturers from developing test fleets of new PHEV and EV designs. Toyota employees complained about the difficulty in getting smaller orders of large format NiMH batteries to service the existing 825 RAV4 EVs. Since no other companies were willing to make large orders, Cobasys was not manufacturing nor licensing any large format NiMH battery technology for automotive purposes. Boschert quotes Dave Goldstein, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of Washington D.C., as saying this policy is necessary because the cost of setting up a multimillion dollar battery assembly line could not be justified without guaranteed orders of 100,000 batteries (~12,000 EVs) per year for 3 years. Boschert concludes that, "it's possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline. Or it's possible that Cobasys simply wants the market for itself and is waiting for a major automaker to start producing plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles."[14]

I'm going to agree, because we do need alternative energy development.
But if tax dollars are going to be used, there needs to be a special oversight committee. It would need to report regularly to the public on money spent and progress made.