President Obama is clearly a fan of electricity. As part of his effort to cut the federal budget, Obama has proposed axing $80 million from clean-diesel engine research and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles research.

On the other hand, electric car owners will get a federally funded $7,500 rebate on their EV purchase at the point of sale. Initially buyers were required to file their taxes to get the $7,500 federal credit.

The hope is that the incentive would increase interest in cars like the Nissan LEAF of Chevrolet Volt.

The rebate is clearly a way for Obama to achieve his goal of seeing 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015.

Obama is also hoping to divert funds from energy-company tax breaks to double the share of electricity from clean energy by 2035 and increase the efficiency of energy use in buildings by 20 percent.

According to Bloomberg, the EPA’s 2012 budget reduces the Clean Diesel Program’s budget from $80 million in 2010 to zero. Congress had reauthorized the program for $500 million in December for five years.

“It’s clearly difficult budget times, but it’s hard to imagine a program that delivers more concrete benefits at a lower cost than the diesel-emissions reduction program,” said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, a trade group based in Frederick, Maryland told Bloomberg.

The diesel grants, which were funding programs to retrofit buses and trucks, will also get no money from the current budget proposal, neither will the hydrogen fuel-cell program in the Energy Department that had $49 million in the 2010 fiscal year.

Several car companies have, however, made forays into hydrogen cars. Earlier this year, Mercedes launched the F-Cell, a hydrogen fuel-cell version of the five-door hatchback B-Class. Mercedes execs said that they believed that the longer range on hydrogen cars and their quick refueling time gave them an advantage over EVs.

Honda’s ex-chief Takeo Fukui had said that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles were the answer to alternative zero-emission vehicles, though the company is now looking at expanding into electric cars. Toyota has also said it plans to sell hydrogen cars in California, Japan and Germany by 2015.

Of course, House Republicans have a very different view point when it comes to the future of transportation in the country, so Obama’s budget is only a preliminary step right now.