Hydrogen Cars Still Decades Off - Woolsey Urges Spending Shift

[hatrack]

"Critics of President Bush's energy policies are urging Congress to scale back his much-touted hydrogen-car research program in favor of existing technologies that can reduce U.S. energy dependence and cut global-warming pollution now. Two years ago, Bush launched a five-year, $1.2 billion program to develop a commercially viable hydrogen fuel-cell car "so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free." He's now asking Congress to increase funding for the program by $500 million.

Congress is even more gung-ho on hydrogen. The House energy bill authorizes $4 billion over five years for hydrogen research and another $1.3 billion for a new-generation nuclear reactor that would produce hydrogen for cars as well as electricity. The Senate, which is at work on its version of the measure, allocates $3.8 billion to hydrogen.

However, many scientists and energy experts say it has become clear that it will take decades to overcome the significant technological and infrastructure hurdles facing commercialization of hydrogen cars - if they can be overcome at all. "I think the hydrogen research should be cut radically and we should be spending the resources on encouraging the utilization of technologies that are either already developed or very near commercialization and production," former CIA Director James Woolsey said. Hydrogen-powered cars are "a nice dream - it's worth spending a bit of money on as an R&D project - but as a principal focus for the next generation of vehicles, I think it was wrongheaded when it was adopted and I think it's wrongheaded now," Woolsey said.

Woolsey is part of a bipartisan coalition of former defense and other high-level administration officials, political leaders and environmentalists urging dramatic action to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Studies last year by the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society concluded that commercially viable hydrogen cars would take considerably longer - about 20 to 30 years - and cost more to develop than had been anticipated."

EDIT

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=HYDROGEN-05-19-05&cat=AN

[SHRED]

1. Woolsey

He is a big backer of industrial hemp.
:thumbsup:

[sam sarrha]

2. we could be free of forign oil with just bio-hemp-diesel and the Amsoil

type engine oils.. 250,000 mile oil changes and extended engine wear up to/and over 1,000,000 miles.

the cars are all either made or the factories owned by forign interests.. so why not have a car your children can inherit, and maybe give to their children. i also got 8 mpg better milage, they have transmission oil and all sorts of prodicts.. their oil has a flashover temp of 980*F, is was developed from military jet engine oils.

go check out the http://www.theaircar.com for a car that runs on AIR. they have a much larger car/van/pu that goes 60 and about 250 miles . they are kept out of the loop because they are anti-globalists.. they sell the factories so the cars can ve made locally to keep the profits in the area.

[NNadir]

3. Another victory for stupidity: Hydrogen car research.

It is really depressing to see how bad ideas have such staying power in our culture. This crap has been hyped since the 1970's, right along with photovoltaics, and like photovoltaics, the hydrogen car always "just around the corner," but somehow never really arrives.

One hopes there will never be hydrogen cars. It is pathetic that Americans seem to believe that hydrogen is a form of energy and not is, an expensive, dangerous, dirty and awkward way of storing energy produced by other means. Hydrogen under the right circumstances can be a useful synthetic intermediate, but it is not a fuel.

We are doomed.

[cprise]

4. PV is a real solution

It just isn't "economical" in a sick economy.

PV has the same futuristic cache as H2 storage and nuclear power. But whatever you may think of the latter two, the reality of PV is quite positive and here to stay as a growing market force.

It is also astounding that Americans do not take to the relatively unglamorous solution of solar thermal. This technology matured earlier than PV, and it is economical (saves money) almost everywhere.

[hatrack]

5. Another drawback - H2 cars may only be good for 30-40K miles

Can't remember where I read this, but it was within the past week. Even the engineers admit that there are serious problems with drive train longevity, especially when compared with a garden-variety ICE, and especially when compared with a diesel engine.

Even setting aside all of the thermodynamic problems hydrogen presents, it is difficult (to say the least) to imagine people paying $100,000 for a car that lasts only three or four years. For that matter, it's hard to imagine people paying $50,000 or $25,000 for such a machine.

:eyes: