[lbo-talk] Hydrogen cars face hazy future

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Tue Aug 12 22:07:51 PDT 2003



>Two US energy experts cast more doubt on Friday on a push to develop
>hydrogen-powered cars as a means to cut air pollution and reduce oil
>imports....Farrell and Keith, associate professor of engineering and
>public policy at
>Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, noted that hydrogen is derived
>mostly from oil and coal, which produce substantial carbon dioxide.

These "experts" have here been made to seem like total ignoramuses. Neither oil nor coal figure in the projections for a hydrogen economy. In the shortest run, hydrogen for fuel cells would be derived by reforming natural gas or methanol--neither of which processes releases appreciable amounts of carbon dioxide. But the mass production of hydrogen will be through electrolysis. And the electricity required needs neither oil, coal, nor uranium. It will come from renewable sources. In Iceland, where the transition is furthest underway, geothermal energy is to power the process. Elsewhere solar or wind energy will do the job--and we have inexhaustible resources of both. The Bushits' "plan" is so ridiculously incomplete and underfunded as to amount to a demagogic alibi for continued obeisance to the oil and coal barons. What is needed is a "Manhattan Project"-scale program for hydrogen production, storage, and distribution plus major incentives to raise the level of fuel-cell use to the quantity where the economies of scale of mass production kick in and reduce the cost of nonpolluting quiet vehicles to and even below the cost of today's internal combustion monsters. And by the way, such a program would create millions of jobs.
>
>Leading environmental groups have also criticized the US government and
>Europe for failing to put renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
>power at the heart of their hydrogen policies.

Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things."

Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64



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