CONGRESS RESTORES FUNDING FOR HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS

Finally, some sanity from the Congress. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, killed fuel cell research a while back. Now it has been restored (MIT Technology Review: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Funding Restored) by the legislature, you know, that bicameral body that sits in session on our behalf in the District.

Secretary Chu prefers biofuels and better batteries, but that is not mainstream thinking. Thinking long into the future, hydrogen-based fuel cells make a lot of sense. In the interim, fossil fuel-based fuel cells--methanol for automotive propulsion and diesel and natural gas (among others) for stationary fuel cells--should be aggressively developed by Dr. Chu and the DOE.

There will come a day when planet earth can yield up no more hydrocarbons. Our planet is finite. At that time, the hydrogen-based fuel cell (hydrogen cracked from water), fully developed and ready to go, will displace the interim technology. We need to be fully prepared for the hydrogen future--a world in which all electricity is generated by nuclear power plants and all hydrogen comes from the oceans. A time when there is no measurable air pollution, greenhouse gases and the insidious effects of mercury and arsenic from burning coal.

And thank you to Amanda Mecke, my literary agent, for kindly passing on this article to me.