Ok, so here’s a wild thought . . .
Was just reading the following Wired Article: Wanted: Drugs to Fight Bioterror
To make a long article short, “Armed with $5.6 billion, the U.S. government wants to woo pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs and vaccines to combat bioterrorism.”
How about we take 20% of that amount and create a a competition between private industry to build and mass-produce an engine or a motor that requires no fossil fuels to generate power. We could call it the “E” Prize and model it after the Ansari XPrize. For those of you who are unaware, a private group of individuals have chipped in to create a purse of $10 Million dollars for the first private venture (not government sponsored) spacecraft launched that can meet the following criteria:
- Launch a piloted, privately-funded spaceship, able to carry 3 people to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles)
- Return safely to earth
- Repeat the launch with the same ship within 2 weeks
Do that and you win $10,000,000!!!
So what do you think . . offer a $500,000,000 purse to the first group to cheaply produce a renewable fuel power source to power cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships? Then offer the other $500,000,000 as grants for research?
Want to stop supplying money to terrorists so they can take up arms against us? They want us out of the Middle East . . . we want out . . . now to kick the pesky oil habit.
I’m interested in what you think of such a plan. What should the requirements be?
