Hydrogen Cars Still Decades Off

An article in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette made the case for the U.S. government switching its emphasis away from the hydrogen economy to technologies already available or close to it.  Two years ago Bush launched a $1.2 billion program to develop a commercially viable hydrogen fuel cell car.  This year he asked for an additional $500 million.  Congress is adding even more with the House energy bill authorizing an additional $4 billion and the Senate allocating $3.8 billion.

More and more scientists are saying that it will take decades to develop and implement the technology and the required infrastructure.  James Woolsey, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society all have stated their concerns that developing the hydrogen economy would take longer and cost more than anticipated and that we need to put more emphasis on using todays technology and near term developments.

Quoting from the article: "Raising fuel-economy standards for today's cars, increasing incentives for hybrid-gas-electric cars, funding research to allow "plug in" hybrid cars powered primarily by electricity and promoting alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel would reduce foreign oil dependence faster, critics said."

I couldn't have stated it better than the last paragraph.  When are our leaders going to get the message?  Please everyone write or e-mail your congressmen and senators stating your views on this issue. It's not too late, the Senate has not acted on the energy bill and a conference committee must settle the differences. 

Comments

[Jack]

I strongly agree with this concept broadly. Sitting back and waiting for any one magic technology to solve our energy problems is foolish.

However, I am confused by the line "funding research to allow "plug in" hybrid cars powered primarily by electricity".

I didn't think there was much research to be done, and certainly not that requires government funding, to get plug in hybrids up and running.

More importantly, I believe that charging hybrids from the grid would cost more than using gasoline. (Although I don't have numbers on this and would like to see them) If the choice is between gasoline and more expensive electric power, what is the gain? I suspect this is in there to throw a chip to the electricity (and perhaps nuclear) industry.

Actually, I don't see anything wrong with integrating power and transport fuel sources and think in the longer term it may be one of the few solutions that emerges as viable (especially if peak oil is real). However, what makes it a top priority here is not as clear.