Time to jump start the hydrogen highway?
A fuel cell vehicle being filled with hydrogen$10 - $15 billion. Sounds like a huge sum of money, doesn't it? Too much for the government to jump start the hydrogen highway, right?
Well, let's add a little perspective.
In 2006, ethanol subsidies reached $8 billion dollars, and within 10 years those subsidies could reach $25 billion per year (more). Even ethanol subsidies, however, are chump change. (Finish: Hydrogen Highway)
Labels: chevy equinox fuel cell vehicle, Chevy Volt electric vehicle concept, electric cars, fuel cells, Hybrid Vehicles, lithium battery, plug-in hybrid vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:49 AM
2 Comments:
Complete Story
$10 - $15 billion. Sounds like a huge sum of money, doesn't it? Too much for the government to jump start the hydrogen highway, right?
Well, let's add a little perspective.
In 2006, ethanol subsidies reached $8 billion dollars, and within 10 years those subsidies could reach $25 billion per year (more). Even ethanol subsidies, however, are chump change.
The real cost of oil
The fascinating new book ZOOM quotes a 2006 statement by GM czar Bob Lutz, "I think there's a bone-deep awareness in the American public now that $1.20 gasoline while the rest of the world is paying five, six dollars is not some God-given right because the maker decided to bestow cheap gasoline on the American public."
So, how much should gasoline really cost?
Obviously, that's not an easy question to answer, but there are other costs associated with gasoline that are not added to the price at the pump. Yet, indirectly, Americans are still responsible for the costs.
For example, ZOOM writes, "The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, calculates that America spent $30 billion to $60 billion a year safeguarding Middle Eastern oil supplies during the 1990s, even though its imports from the region totaled only about $10 billion a year during that period."
Others claim such an amount is only skimming the surface.
"A more comprehensive study of oil's security subsidies added the costs of maintaining the taxpayer-funded Strategic Petroleum Reserve (a stockpile of crude oil kept as insurance against Middle East turmoil) and other oil-protection services (such as the Coast Guard clearing shipping lanes for, and providing navigational support to, oil tankers), and reckoned that the energy security subsidy for Big Oil is really $78 billion to $158 billion a year."
Add in $2 trillion for the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and suddenly $10 billion to $15 billion to set in a motion a plan with a real opportunity of ending foreign oil dependency seems like the bargain of the century. Jump starting the hydrogen hydrogen highway is so cheap, compared to its possible benefits - ending foreign oil dependence - that even failure is worth the risk.
But fuel cell vehicles are a joke
I'm not sure that automakers can build cost-effective hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the next 5 years. Still, GM claims that if $10 to $15 billion were subsidized to jump start the hydrogen highway - enough to fuel at least a 1,000,000 fuel cell vehicles - then GM could build fuel cell vehicles at a price cost competitive to conventional vehicles.
Costs aside, I can state quite confidently that fuel cell vehicles are no joke. In fact, on a recent test drive of the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell Vehicle, I was absolutely stunned. More interesting, the vehicle I drove was already based on old fuel cell technology. The new generation of fuel cell technology is already being developed and prototyped into the next generation of fuel cell vehicles.
Ultimately, if there was one thing that most disappointed me about the Equinox fuel cell vehicle, it was that its NiHM battery pack - similar to that used in today's hybrid cars - cannot propel the Equinox. The battery cannot extend the range of the vehicle. New lithium-ion batteries, however, the same kind of batteries that will propel plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric cars, could probably make fuel cell vehicles much more hydrogen efficient.
Equally as important, as I claimed in an earlier post, fuel cell vehicles and battery-powered vehicles can be complimentary technologies.
In the future, it isn't unrealistic to think that pure electric cars could work for some consumers, bio-fueled plug-in hybrid vehicles for others (a proposed derivative of the Chevy Volt), and fuel cell vehicles for still others. One type of vehicle probably won't work for everyone.
Still, in GM's world, all of these vehicles could be built upon the same E-Flex Platform using many of the same parts, components and production lines, which would increase economies of scale and make fuel cell cars, plug-in hybrids and electric cars cheaper - by sharing costs. In Toyota's world, the Hybrid Synergy Drive holds much of the same potential.
Just $10 to $15 billion to set in motion a potential revolution in energy - THE most important factor facing the world. Considering how much America spends simply securing the oil-complex, isn't the risk of losing $15 billion worth the potential?
It is time to jump start this ... I have been proposing High Ground Communities ... getting 60 US cities off fossil fuels using renewable energy including a hydrogen highway produced from solar and wind. Need help .. it would move the entire hydogen vehicle system more rapidly.
Peggy Miller
High Ground Communities
www.highlandwinds.com/blog.aspx
Post a Comment
<< Home