By Kitty Taylor

Presidential candidate John McCain today announced he wants to create a $300 million governmental prize for anyone able to develop a car battery that allows future automobiles to outperform today’s commercially available hybrid and electric cars.

“I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people by offering a $300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars. This is one dollar for every man, woman and child in the U.S. -- a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency -- and should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs.”

I’ll take this opportunity to share a couple of nongovernmental efforts already in the works to increase energy efficiency and boost clean production.

• Progressive Insurance teamed up with the X Prize Foundation to launch an international competition focused on the development of the first market-ready, 100-MPG vehicle. The prize is $10 million for the winning team. The competition starts in 2009 in 10 U.S. cities.

• Forest-products company Weyerhaeuser and oil & gas company Chevron entered into a partnership earlier this year to research and potentially commercialize fuel for cars and trucks that comes plant sources, such as the switch grass found in abundance in the southeastern U.S.  Chevron has the experience and expertise in refining and marketing a product like this. Weyerhaeuser brings the ability to grow and deliver plant matter in large quantities, as well as the understanding of how to break down wood-based fiber into other applications.

Do you have other recent examples of nongovernmental innovations to promote a sustainable energy future? Let us know what they are.