Reply #35: People have too much faith that hydrogen will come to the rescue

[JohnyCanuck]

and our energy guzzling lifestyles can continue as normal.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the famous editorial (in the '30s) in the NYT criticizing the work of Dr. Van Allen, because outer space is a vacuum, and a rocket would have nothing to push against, so therefore we couldn't send rockets to other planets. I think the viability of hydrogen remains to be seen

That's a false analogy as a rocket doesn't work by pushing against air. The NYT editorial therefore was based on a false premise. However the people with concerns about the hype over hydrogen do have a valid scientific case behind them. Currently it does take more energy to liberate hydrogen from natural gas or water than can be obtained from the energy stored in the hydrogen that has been liberated. This is according to the laws of Chemistry and Physics and not likely to change soon. That is a limiting factor that currently does not affect gasoline. We get more energy from a gallon of gasoline than is expended in producing that gasoline.

Up to now gasoline has been relatively easily and cheaply obtainable. As we get past the Peak Oil phase gasoline and other petroleum products will become more expensive as they are less readily available and they become harder to extract from their reservoirs. I think too many people are expecting that they will just pull up the hummer to the pumps and fill up with hydrogen instead of gasoline and life will continue pretty much as normal. However, it appears unlikely that hydrogen will ever be as easily and cheaply available as oil based products were in the 20th century. Therefore we must be planning for significant changes in our transportation systems and urban development and design as well and not just relying on hydrogen to pull our fat out of the fire at the last minute.