Congressman Bart Gordon’s Response to the U.S.-Japan Disparity in Lithium-ion Battery Funding

15 Responses to “Congressman Bart Gordon’s Response to the U.S.-Japan Disparity in Lithium-ion Battery Funding”

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   Brian Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 1:04 am

   Congressman Gordon,

   Would you agree that the Japanese government is ten times as supportive of their domestic auto companies as our government is of the Big 3? That’s what it seems like to me…  
   
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   MarioM Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 3:35 am

   “So far the U.S. has pledged 20 billion USD…”

   Lyle, is this a typo?  
   
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   Special K! Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 7:06 am

   Brian, what the gov’t is really saying is, they would much rather fight and die for oil in the Middle East, beg them to take our money for their oil so we can keep driving our cars, rather than provide funds to spark a powerful domestic industry (cars, batteries, technology, electric utilities) that would boost domestic economy, clean our air, mitigate global warming (if it exists), clean our waters (less oil and gas run-off), and stop putting ourselves into this massive trade deficit for importing oil all the time.

   The reason the Japanese support this technology so much is 1. The Japanese are more environmentally conscience than Americans (they have 4-material-types trash cans in public places, and their city streets are SPECTACULARLY clean!) and 2. Because the Japanese have to import ALL of it’s oil, which looks bad no matter how you look at it. They have more at stake than we do.

   Sorry for being a smart ass, I just can’t believe how our gov’t does these things to keep digging us into a hole of oil we may never dig ourselves out of. These politicians think this is some hippie environmentalist issue to brush off as some niche interest group, but the fact is, whether they know it or not, every American WANTS this technology, if not now, then later.  
   
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   Lyle Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 7:16 am

   Thanks Mario, typo,…fixed.  
   
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   Tom Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 7:30 am

   Spoken like a true Politician !!!!  
   
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   Jim Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 8:03 am

   Write to your representative:
   http://www.house.gov/writerep/

   My suggested content:
   I am asking you to work with Representative Bart Gordon on the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Act of 2007. I would like to see our government give more support for the technology. I feel that if we allow the Asian markets to outpace us on Energy Storage research and development, we will eventually move from a dependence on Middle East oil to a dependence on their battery technology. To ensure our move to energy independence, I encourage you to support the bill. Thank you for your time.  
   
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   kent beuchert Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 9:19 am

   Looks to me like all that money that the Japanese have spent ver the years was wasted – they are behind in the battery technology arena. So why does anyone think throwing away money here will do anything?
   So far, every time the govt has spent money on energy, it’s been a disaster – just look at wind power and photovoltaic power, bioth collossal flops that no one wants to acknowledge. If we had funded battery research before nanotechnology appeared, the whole lot would have been a waste and nothing accomplished. We have plenty of investment capital chasing battery technology – why does anyone believe that battery companies lack money – A123 Systems is rich and LG has more money than a lot of states in our country. And furthermore, why does anyone think that WE have to invent a battery in order to buy and use them? We buy everthing else under the sun from foreign countries, so why are batteries a special case? I see lots of investment funds supplying money to EEStor, Altair, and other small companies for research and mostly I see a lack of ideas, not a lack of money. Typical political solution to everything : throw money at the problem.
   Typical result : abject failure.  
   
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   Brian Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 9:45 am

   kent:

   the reason it has failed in the past is that there has not been enough funding. politicians will throw some funds at these types of projects to make themselves look good, and then cut off the funds.

   i’d like to see the amount of public funds that go towards green technology vs. the amount of public funds that go towards weapons research.  
   
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   Dave B Says:
   October 11th, 2007 at 10:10 am

   Kent,

   I agree. Hello, capitalism… If the government wants to fund a little R&D, or better yet, order fleets of Volts, then fine. But throwing money at it will not solve the problem and will no doubt make execs richer.

   It sounds like now the Volt can only be produced if government dollars flow. This is BS.  
   
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    Tim Says:
    October 11th, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    This country was once great because we were free to succeed or fail and the free market competition made those choices. Today’s elitist Neocon Fascist left and Democratic-Socialist left will spend us into oblivion the very same way that the communists bankrupted the Soviet Union. Oh well, the USA was the longest lived Democratic Republic. Now it’s just a Socialist-Democracy. What a shame.

    Democracy: “Three wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.”

    Democratic-Republic: “The sheep has a gun.”  
    
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    OhmExcited Says:
    October 11th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    Kent, the Japanese are not behind in battery production, only research. A lot of research is done in the US. The Japanese and other foreign governments however help their companies become dominant in production. A123 batteries were essentially invented in MIT labs, but are made in China. Almost all commodity lithium-ion batteries used for laptops and other electronic devices are made in Asia.  
    
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    Neutron Flux Says:
    October 11th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    By all comments above we should have never went to the moon as that was entirely financed by the US Government & likewise we should not have developed the bomb, financed by the government as well, not that the millions of lives it saved both Japanese & US were worth it or anything. If government is to stay out of research it must be across the board. Don’t hammer government fundings contribution to tech advance unless you are willing to give up ever piece of tech you own whos developement was subsidized by the government if you are going to preach it then by golly live it! I thought so? For every technological break through their are numerous more failures, that is life. Yes we will be funding more failures but statiscally we will be funding more break thoughs as well. How much of A123’s profit from R&D that was funded by Federal dollars at MIT will be comming back to the tax payer as dividends. Can you say Zippo? Seems all this past complaining about strings attached is meaningless since many companys products are directly traceable back to R& D funded by Uncle Sam who does not get a dime in return. Their return is via the IRS and the jobs/economy it produces in house that is taxable. I for one am glad Congress is helping on a matching basis in funding for R&D. There is a big differnce between building in the lab and mass producing batteries as well as the need to continue to improve the density/cost ratio. The more minds we can get working on it the better the odds of making breakthroughs that in the end will benefit everyone. A lot more than I can say about the hundereds of billions of dollars pouring down the Bagdad sewer.  
    
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    law Says:
    October 11th, 2007 at 6:36 pm

    Japan’s government debt is now almost 180% of GDP, waiting for the big 200 Japan. Congrats, spend more money, the US government debt is ony what 60% of GDP, so Japan’s is 3 times larger relative to the size of the GDP.  
    
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    GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Concept Site » New Bill Requesting Funds to Support Plug-in EV Research Has Been Introduced to Congress Says:
    October 20th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
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    shooting clothing Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    Great quality stuff.  
    
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