WASHINGTON – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday called for fees on oil-industry profits to fund clean-energy research and ease the fuel “crisis on our hands.”
In an address to alternative energy investors and advocates that was trumpeted by aides as a major policy speech, Clinton said: “The country that put a man on the moon can be the country to find new lower cost and cleaner forms of energy.”
Clinton proposed a “Strategic Energy Fund” which she said could bring in as much as $20 billion a year in oil-company fees to fund development and give rebates to folks struggling to pay rising heating bills and transportation costs.
Clinton also said oil companies should be forced to posts signs at gas stations reminding motorists to check the tire pressure in their cars and trucks.