Free Republic

As early as the end of this year, you might be able to hop into your plug-in electric car and drive to Portland, Ore., or Vancouver, B.C., without worrying about finding a charging station. The state has received federal economic stimulus funds to build four or five charging stations along the I-5 corridor from Canada to Oregon. The $1.32 million would ultimately pay for seven to 10 stations on I-5 and I-90. If all goes as planned, Washington will be the first state to have a series of coordinated electric charging stations spanning its borders, said Tonia Buell, a spokeswoman...

WASHINGTON — Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells, once hailed by President George W. Bush as a pollution-free solution for reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, will not be practical over the next 10 to 20 years, the energy secretary said Thursday, and the government will cut off funds for the vehicles’ development. Developing those cells and coming up with a way to transport the hydrogen is a big challenge, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in releasing energy-related details of the administration’s budget for the year beginning Oct. 1. Dr. Chu said the government preferred to focus on projects...

Can Hydrogen Cars Reduce America's Oil Dependence? By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross July 8, 2008 In early June, Honda introduced its latest hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle, the FCX Clarity, to great fanfare. The Clarity’s predecessor was the FCX, which became the first U.S. government-approved fuel cell vehicle in 2002. The Clarity offers a number of advances over the FCX, including a 30% increase in range. The vehicle’s reception is reflected in such publications as Consumer Affairs, which noted that the car seems attractive at a time of high oil prices and ecological awareness: “Here is a vehicle that doesn’t require oil to...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vision of a "hydrogen highway" - 100 fueling stations by 2010 that would make it practical for California motorists to use non-polluting hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles - has hit a roadblock. Each of the last three agencies that received state funding to build a fueling station has decided not to pursue the project, ... In addition, three stations have recently closed, including one in Richmond that served county buses and was dismantled this week. That means the state is now down to 23 stations amid concerns that the technology is not viable in the near future...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell signed a memorandum of understanding Thursday to jointly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as Schwarzenegger wrapped up a three-day visit to Canada. The pact, known as the Pacific Coast Collaborative to Protect Our Shared Climate and Oceans, commits the two jurisdictions to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work on the development and implementation of clean technologies, but is not legally binding. The deal commits both areas to work together to protect the waters off the Pacific coast of North America, a significant portion of...

The star of Chula Vista's auto pool is a high-tech wonder that never needs gasoline. The 2005 Honda FCX runs on hydrogen, one of the most plentiful elements on earth. Sounds like a dream. But finding city employees to pilot the vehicle has been a nightmare. “It's been a challenge to keep people driving it,” said Jack Dickens, the city's fleet manager. “They are intimidated by the cost.” Manufactured in small batches, these experimental cars are painstakingly engineered and stuffed with costly gizmos. This gives the little FCX a big price tag: $1 million. “I try not to drive it...

The EV1 may be dead and buried, but the electric car that once roamed California freeways is still haunting General Motors Corp. The Detroit auto giant is the reluctant "star" of the biting documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" which chronicles one fateful slice of California's effort to force automakers to develop cleaner vehicles for the state's smog-afflicted residents. The film, which opened in limited release last month, takes aim at several major automakers including Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. But GM receives by far the worst bashing for its decision to terminate the EV1...

I love going to Apple's website and watch the trailers for upcoming films. The other day, I ran across one for a documentary that's opening June 30th called Who Killed the Electric Car? According to the trailer, GM came out with what would hopefully become a commercially viable electric car in 1996. But after a few years, it pretty much disappeared, never to be heard from again. No surprise, the trailer flat-out accuses the oil companies and George W. Bush (is there anything this man isn't guilty of in the minds of liberals?) of quashing the electric car in the...

ST. HELENA, Calif. -- Unable to drive down high oil prices, President Bush is spending Earth Day promoting futuristic hydrogen fuel technology as a way to wean Americans from gas-guzzling vehicles. After a bike ride near his Napa Valley resort Saturday morning, Bush planned to visit the California Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento for a tour and speech on his energy plan. The plan does not include any measures that would reduce gas prices in the short term, the White House acknowledges. But with Republicans worried that the increasing cost to drive could hurt them in the voting booth...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today addressed the National Hydrogen Association's 17th annual conference, discussing his administration's commitment to protect California's environment and encourage the use of clean energy sources such as hydrogen. "California is investing millions of dollars to line our freeways with hydrogen fueling stations so that low emission cars can travel up and down our wonderful state," said Governor Schwarzenegger, who addressed the assembly of nearly 1,000 participants in Long Beach in a video-taped address from the State Capitol. "With more and more businesses proving that hydrogen power is practical, clean and here to stay, we are well on...

Oil giant BP is expected to announce today the construction of a second, clean-burning power plant, this time in the United States, a BP executive told an Anchorage audience this week. BP and some partners moved forward last year with a similar but smaller plant in Scotland. In all, BP plans to spend $8 billion to build a total of 10 plants worldwide that generate "carbon-free" power, the executive said. Charles Christopher, BP's CO2 program manager, spoke Wednesday at the Alaska Forum on the Environment about the oil company's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and make money doing it. BP...

<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to cut air pollution by 50 percent within a decade -- mostly by urging drivers to use hydrogen-powered vehicles -- was described as unrealistic by environmentalists and scientists, even as they praised him for promoting the new fuel cell technology.</p>

Elementary schools start with the fundamentals, the building blocks, the three R's: reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. The California Comeback starts with its fundamentals, its building blocks, too. They are a different three R's: recovery, reform, rebuild. When I took office 22 months ago, I had no illusions about how difficult the job would be, no illusions about what it would take to turn around a state $22 billion in debt. But in that time, we have accomplished the first R - recovery. We saved the state from bankruptcy, increasing state revenues $6 billion without raising taxes. We rolled back the...

DIAMOND BAR, California - Conservatives and liberals seem more divided than ever these days. But there is one issue that has become so critical, it is bringing some from even the far Right and far Left together -- breaking America's addiction to foreign oil. A broad coalition is forming to take the country in a new way -- the hydrogen highway. There are some down sides to American drivers' gas-guzzling, do-your-own-thing way of life. For instance, the jam-packed streets of New York, the clogged roads into Washington D.C., and the maxed-out freeways of Los Angeles, all places where millions of...

In a setback for one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's centerpiece environmental efforts, state lawmakers on Thursday approved barely half the money the state Environmental Protection Agency had said was needed to start building a "hydrogen highway" across California. Lawmakers hammering out the state budget in Sacramento approved $6.5 million for the system of nonpolluting hydrogen cars and fueling stations beginning Jan. 1. Some Democrats questioned the expense. They raised concerns about whether the money would be better spent on schools, and whether taxpayers or private companies will own the hydrogen fueling stations the money will help construct. Republicans also questioned...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans to put money into "hydrogen highways" caused a hiccup in the otherwise smooth passage of the new $117.5 billion state budget Thursday. Lawmakers raised questions about one spending item– $6.5 million for leasing 12 hydrogen-powered vehicles for the state fleet, three hydrogen fueling stations and hydrogen technology research – at a time when other programs are being cut. "Even as an environmentalist, it's really hard to put $6.5 million into anything when you haven't got any money," said Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, who ultimately voted for the legislation. --snip-- After that, the state...

TORRANCE -- No-pollution cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are at least a decade away for most people -- but not one California family. In a long-term road test, John Spallino, his wife and two daughters will begin leasing a silver-and-blue, four-seat Honda FCX on Wednesday to get them to work, school and anywhere else they want to roam. The Spallinos will provide reports about the car's performance to Honda as part of the auto industry's first private test of the promising technology that produces only one byproduct -- water clean enough to drink. "Maybe this is the technology of...

It's clean and invisible, and it will take our cars farther than we ever dreamed. Hydrogen could be the fuel in our grandchildren's cars, or perhaps even our own, but only if we invest now. (snip) Generated by a variety of sources, some of them clean and renewable, hydrogen is not a pipe dream. While hybrid vehicles do reduce our dependence on foreign oil and clean our air, we also must invest in totally eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels and their related air emissions. Hydrogen is the simplest and lightest element. It can be produced from molecules called hydrocarbons...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will advocate that California invest $54 million in public money to help build a network of up to 100 hydrogen fueling stations statewide within five years, according to new details of his "Hydrogen Highway" plan. A team of more than 200 scientists, automakers and environmentalists spent a year drafting the 144-page document, which the governor requested last year, calling hydrogen-powered cars a way to reduce smog, slow global warming and wean the nation from oil. The "California Hydrogen Highway Blueprint" is set to be formally unveiled Thursday at a Sacramento news conference, and is posted on the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of automakers and energy companies will develop and build hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in a multimillion-dollar partnership with the government, aiming for possible mass marketing of the vehicles within 15 years, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday. The marketing will start in California. His department announced plans for several "learning demonstration teams" involving automakers General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler AG, Ford Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co. Energy companies ChevronTexaco, BP, and Shell. Ballard Power Systems, a leading manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells, will also join in the partnership. "If our research program is successful, it is...

RANCHO CORDOVA - With opposition growing among Democrats statewide, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger moved Wednesday to shore up his environmental credentials by touting the reinstatement of a program to take older, polluting autos off the road. With a Sacramento-area auto yard as the backdrop, Schwarzenegger announced that the state is again offering $1,000 to car owners who voluntarily retire older vehicles that cannot meet the state's smog control standards. The goal is to take as many as 15,000 high-polluting vehicles off the road annually during the next 10 years. "This will pay big dividends for California," the governor said at a...

At the January auto show in Los Angeles, U.S. car enthusiasts got their first look at the H2R, a race car from BMW. Building it took just 10 months, but the race it's designed to win will last for the next 10 years and beyond. It's the race to stem pollution from vehicles that burn gasoline and diesel fuels. The H2R runs on hydrogen, the gas that lights the sun. All carmakers are scrambling to harness this clean fuel, driven by long-term worries about oil supplies as well as environmental harm. Washington and other governments share the concerns. When it...

In what the company has called a "bold experiment," Hummer has prepared a hydrogen-powered version of its H2 SUT (sport utility truck), the H2H. The vehicle is not intended for production, and a Hummer spokesperson said yesterday in a phone interview that the company will not divulge the prototype's development cost. Hummer's parent, General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ), owns the H2H and shares it with the office of the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a recent statement, Schwarzenegger said that the purpose of the prototype is to "demonstrate the economic and technical viability of hydrogen."...

Road to hydrogen cars may not be so clean Environmental peril in making, containing fuel Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Monday, December 20, 2004 Printable Version Email This Article Auto-industry ads depict hydrogen cars as the vehicular route to clean, blue skies. President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are among their biggest champions. The politicians' enthusiasm for the technology -- a leading proposal to solve global warming -- is shared by many scientists. But reality could prove more complex, some critics say. Among the problems detailed at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco last week: -- Hydrogen is...

'Hydrogen highway' bad route, group saysAlternative fuel championed by governor flawed, but proponents say give it more time By Harrison SheppardSACRAMENTO BUREAU Saturday, November 20, 2004 - SACRAMENTO -- A report by a libertarian think tank seeks to debunk Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans for a "hydrogen highway" by claiming hydrogen-fueled vehicles will make little difference in reducing harmful emissions. The report released this week by the Reason Foundation argues that even while hydrogen itself may be clean-burning, the processes used to manufacture and distribute hydrogen are dirty enough to nearly negate the benefits -- and the cost of conversion isn't...

WASHINGTON - About four miles east of the U.S. Capitol, in an industrial section of town, sits a gas station that looks like any other. But it's not, because on Wednesday it became the first in North America to have a hydrogen dispensing pump. Shell executives, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) and District of Columbia Mayor Anthony A. Williams unveiled the technology, which the Bush administration hopes will help reduce the country's dependence on imported oil. "This will be, in fact, the first step toward the real transition in the economy from the carbon-based economies of the...

LOS ANGELES -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced an environmentally friendly Hummer on Friday -- but not exactly the hydrogen-powered car he promised voters he would build when he campaigned for office. Criticized by environmentalists for owning a gas-guzzler, Schwarzenegger said during last year's recall campaign that he would convert one of his Hummers to run on hydrogen. Though he hasn't done that, the governor did introduce an alternative at an event that mixed environmentalism and stagecraft: a hydrogen-powered Hummer custom-built by General Motors at his request. The governor drove the shiny blue SUV to a hydrogen fueling spot at Los...

VANCOUVER — It's the most abundant element in the universe. It promises limitless supplies of pollution-free energy. Hydrogen is the holy grail for anyone determined to free the world eventually from its dependence on oil and natural gas. Cars and homes will run on electricity made without combustion by combining hydrogen and air, the only byproducts being heat and water. But after years of promotion by its advocates, sometimes bordering on hype, many people have become jaded and even skeptical that a brave, clean new world is just around the corner. The message from industry insiders, though, is hang in...

BURBANK - Burbank will pay $125,000 for five cars that will be converted to run on hydrogen and electricity as part of $2 million, five-city pilot program launched by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The program is designed to pave the way for autos that run solely on hydrogen cells -- a clean alternative to combustion engines that is not yet affordable. The initial hydrogen-electric vehicles are not less polluting than gas-electric vehicles. "This particular technology is meant to be a bridge to our ultimate goal of zero-emission, fuel cell-powered vehicles," said AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood. Burbank will...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental aide told state lawmakers Wednesday the new governor's vision of a "hydrogen highway" to spur the ultimate replacement of the internal combustion engine is realistic by 2010, and won't even cost the state much money. Schwarzenegger pledged to build hydrogen fueling stations every 20 miles along major highways, allowing motorists to buy clean-burning hydrogen-fueled vehicles without fear they will run out of gas. He chose 2010 because that's when automakers have said such vehicles will be readily and affordably available, said Environmental Protection Secretary Terry Tamminen, who advised Schwarzenegger before he made his...

Despite all the promise of pollution-free vehicles, a transportation system based on hydrogen fuel cells is anything but a sure bet, members of a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded last week. Even if the most optimistic predictions prove true, and the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicles reach commercial showrooms by 2015, it would take at least another quarter-century before they have a major impact on the market, the panel concluded. "This is a tremendously important, transforming opportunity we are talking about, but it's not going to happen with current technology and current knowledge," said Dan Sperling, a panel member...