Fuel Cells Move Over, Electric’s Taking Center Stage
The nails in the coffin of W.’s legacy just keep getting hammered faster and with more fury. On Thursday, May 7, President Barack Obama cut the Bush era plan — all $1.2 billion worth of it — to develop hydrogen fuel cell cars. Not only does it save taxpayers $100 million a year, but it also admits that the idea was just bad from day one. Something everybody but Bush seemed to grasp in short order.
The government is putting its energy — and our money — behind what Energy Secretary Steven Chu called more immediate energy-saving solutions. Tom Welch, a spokesman for the Energy Department, diplomatically summed up the basic issue, “The probability of deploying hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the next 10 to 20 years is low.” Amen. With the problems we’re facing, we don’t have 10 to 20 years.
In all fairness, the fiscal 2010 budget does include $68.2 million for fuel-cell technologies and the Energy Department will pay for research into stationary fuel cells for use in non-automotive applications. The Bush administration poured more than $500 million into fuel cell research, but, as Philip Class, the president of the National Environmental Trust said back in 2003, “This was window-dressing pure and simple.”
Concentrating on developing better battery technology for plug-in hybrids and all-electrics and providing tax credits to both manufacturers and consumers is more on target and will deliver a faster, short-term return on taxpayer dollars. And if fuel cells come along in 10 to 20 years, great. In the meantime, however, we have to do something real and that’s electric.