The presumed Republican nominee on Monday proposed a $300 million government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology. The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency," McCain said at Fresno State University. [search.breitbart.com]

McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."

The Arizona senator also proposed stiffer fines for automakers who skirt existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as incentives to increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol.

In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S. automakers [search.breitbart.com] with a $5,000 tax credit [search.breitbart.com] for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell.

"In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure," said McCain. "From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success."

The proposal comes as gasoline has reached a record cost of more than $4 a gallon. That has boosted the price of virtually all goods and services, sent commuters flocking to public transportation and increased tensions between the United States and its Middle Eastern oil suppliers.

To the astonishment of a cadre of self-certain, arrogant skeptics, MPI technology will prove in independent laboratory tests - long before the November election - that existing technology can recharge batteries, for everything from cell phones to electric cars, with no need to plug-in.

This will be followed by independent laboratory tests of magnetic technology that will ultimately replace batteries.

For good measure, ambient temperature Ultraconductors will surface a bit later. These can do everything a superconductor can do at ambient temperature.

As the red queen says in Alice in Wonderland: "I always need to believe in six impossible things before breakfast".

And Uncle Sam will not have to give us (or anyone else) a $300 million prize.

Mark Goldes