Green is the color: President Barack Obama is pushing Congress to authorize $200 million a year for research into clean energy technologies that can wean automobiles off oil. Obama proposed the idea of an energy security trust last month in his State of the Union address, but he was putting a price tag on the idea during a trip today to the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago—$2 billion over 10 years. The White House says the research would be paid for with revenue from federal oil and gas leases on offshore drilling and would not add to the deficit. The full story can be found here.
On the assembly line: A strong increase in auto output boosted U.S. factory production last month, the latest sign that manufacturing is helping drive economic growth after lagging for much of 2012. Factory output rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8% in February from January, after falling 0.3% in the previous month, the Federal Reserve reports this morning. The biggest gain was in autos and auto parts, where production increased 3.6% after falling 4.9% in January. Car sales have risen steadily this year after reaching a five-year high in 2012. More details from the report can be found in the full story here.
Holding the line: Federal Reserve officials will spend much of a meeting next week debating the potential risks from the central bank’s stimulus plan, but Chairman Ben Bernanke has already signaled he believes the costs of inaction are even greater. The U.S. central bank looks set to keep buying $85 billion a month in mortgage and Treasury bonds in an effort to encourage investment and bolster a weak economic recovery. A raft of recent data has shown the economy gathering some steam, but the unemployment rate remains uncomfortably high at 7.7%. Reuters has the full story here.
