President Obama on Leno last night and spoke about hybrid vehicles.

Leno referenced the fact that Obama recently visited a plug-in hybrid factory. Obama spoke excitedly about the new hybrid vehicle technology and went on to say that the government would be investing billions into research and development in this field.

Here’ the transcript from this segment of President of Obama on Leno:

LENO: Now, you mentioned cars a minute ago. You went to the electric car, you went to look at some batteries today.

OBAMA: I did. It’s spectacular what is being down now with plug-in hybrids, where not only are you getting the hybrid technology, but now you can plug it in at home in your garage. And potentially we could see cars getting 150 miles to a gallon of gas.

And when you get home you could potentially sell the energy in your car back into the grid, back to your utility and get money.

So we’re going to be investing billions of dollars in research and development around these technologies. I know that you were mentioning you’ve got a hydrogen car –-

LENO: I’ve got the GM hydrogen car. That’s a whole new –

OBAMA: That’s a whole new level of technology. That’s what’s going to create the auto industry of the future. That’s where we’re going to win back manufacturing. But right now we’re behind.

These batteries are being made in Japan –- just like wind power is being made in Europe. We need to bring that here, and that’s part of what my budget and part of what our Recovery Act is all about.

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order to end the ban on the funding of stem cell research.

The ban, which was instituted by former President George W. Bush, prevented any federal funds from contributing to embryonic stem cell research. Obama sited a recent Gallup poll that showed that 52 percent of Americans favored lessening or eliminating restrictions on stem cell research.

Barack Obama also stated today that Americans owe a debt of gratitude to people like Christopher Reeve and his wife Dana who created a foundation dedicated to curing spinal cord injuries.

Obama expressed his sadness over the fact that the Reeves were not at the White House to witness the signing of the executive order.

Christopher Reeve died of heart failure in 2004 and Dana Reeve died in 2006 of lung cancer.

Lifting the restrictions fulfulls a campaign promise made by Obama and will enable the National Institutes of Health to entertain requests from scientists to study lines of cells that had previously been unfundable research.

Stem cells are characterized by how they renew themselves and can become a wide variety of specialized cell types.