Last week, John McCain suggested lifting the federal ban on offshore oil drilling to increase domestic oil production.

Now, it seems McCain has hopped on the bandwagon of alternative technology to run our vehicles.  McCain is proposing a $300 million government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology.

The award 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 in remarks prepared for delivery Monday at Fresno State University in California, reports FoxNews.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.”

Senator McCain is also proposing stiffer fines for automakers who avoid existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as incentives to increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol.

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

It’s hard to tell what side of the energy crisis debate John McCain is on.  One week, he wants to drill for more oil.  The next week, he wants to explore more technology for automotive batteries.  Check back soon to see if McCain changes his mind again next week!

Photo courtesty of www.JohnMcCain.com.