Thirsty? Imagine bending down to your car tailpipe and taking a big slurp. Hydrogen-powered vehicles could make that possible (though you'd probably prefer to get your drinking water elsewhere). Unlike gasoline-driven combustion engines, the hydrogen fuel cell generates power not by burning, but through a chemical reaction in which hydrogen and oxygen are converted into energy with water as the only byproduct. It's not just clean, as a fuel source, hydrogen offers nearly three times the energy of gasoline since it burns hotter and faster. The concept of such a clean car is appealing, but a growing number of critics are saying it's time to wake up and embrace technologies, such as gas-electric hybrid vehicles, that they say are more feasible."The things that matter here are energy security, climate change and air pollution," said David Keith of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

"Focusing on fuel-cell cars makes no economic sense for any of these goals."President Bush declared in his 2003 State of the Union address that he aimed to have hydrogen-powered cars on the road in significant numbers by 2020 and pledged $1.2 billion in federal money for the effort. The energy department followed up this year by including $318 million for both fuel cells and hydrogen production in its 2005 budget.

View: Full Article | Source: abcnews.go.com

Agreed that H2 is a long way off and is not a solution. The energy to make the H2 has to come from somewhere. We aren't getting enough green energy to begin to meet the demand for electricity alone. There's no green energy left over to make H2.

Hybrids are a very good thing to pursue but there's a much, much easier step that should be done immediately. Change the laws to greatly increase the required average fuel mileage of automakers' fleets. Automakers will quickly change the designs of the vehicles to get much better mileage. They'll do this by making them smaller and lighter and will put weaker engines in them. That will have an enormous effect on reducing CO2 emissions and demand for oil. Sure, SUV lovers will whine that they can't take off like race cars. Too bad.
At the same time, greatly increase the tax on gasoline. Make it painful for consumers to fill their Hummers and they'll stop buying them. They'll buy station wagons instead and will still be able to carry a large load.