By Josh Weinhold, Truth Staff
jweinhold@etruth.com
WAKARUSA -- President Barack Obama will announce today $2.4 billion in federal stimulus funding for advanced battery and electric vehicle manufacturing at an event here.
The funding will go to 48 manufacturing projects in 25 states, federal officials said Tuesday night. Seven of those projects will be in Indiana and 11 in Michigan -- the states receiving the largest awards in terms of dollars.
"Almost all of these technologies are manufactured overseas," said Matt Rogers, a senior adviser to energy secretary Steven Chu. "This is an effort to make sure these technologies can be produced in the United States."
Of the $2.4 billion in grants:
* $1.5 billion will go towards U.S.-based manufacturers of batteries and battery components.
* $500 million will fund U.S.-based manufacturers of electric motors and other drive train components.
* $400 million will purchase and test thousands of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and install electric charging infrastructure.
The grants are paid for through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the nearly $800 billion piece of economic recovery legislation signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year.
Specific companies receiving grants will be announced this morning. In a conference call with reporters, Rogers said the awards fund large and small companies, from vehicle manufacturers to small battery component producers.
Comments made during the conference call were embargoed by the White House until this morning.
Grant recipients are required to spend 70 percent of the funds by December 2010 and 100 percent by September 2011.
Officials would not give specific job creation totals as a result of the grants, but said the administration expects the effort to result in tens of thousands of new manufacturing positions.
Only 20 percent of applicants will receive grant money. The energy department received requests for three times the amount of grants it could give away.
Rogers said the application process began the day after the recovery act was passed. Companies had two months to apply and a three to five expert reviewers from a pool of 119 inspected the applications over a 50-day period.