Archives: Political Issues

Cuba’s National Hydrogen Group is currently leading pilot testing of vehicles to see if H2 is indeed their fuel of the future. Tania Carbonel Morales, Director of the Center for Studies on Renewable Energy Technologies (CETER) has stated that students are actively participating in this study. According to the article, “Meanwhile, Iraysa Oviedo Rivero, of • Read More »

It’s no secret that the White House and Department of Energy (DOE) consider hydrogen cars to be the ugly stepchild of alternative fuel vehicles. The DOE keeps trying to defund hydrogen R&D despite what the car companies think and despite what the bi-partisan U. S. Senators think. A couple of weeks ago I had talked • Read More »

Every once in a while I write about the political issues surrounding the creation of hydrogen fuel cell cars and its supporting infrastructure. In June, 2010 I had talked about how U. S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) were fighting with the Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu • Read More »

Over the years, I’ve talked many times about the cost of building a nationwide hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The critics often throw out a high ball figure of $500 billion in order to replicate the current amount of gasoline dispensing stations nationwide. This is an errant figure meant to scare people about even thinking about putting • Read More »

When it comes to Washington DC politics it’s not always clear whether the dog is wagging the tail or the tail is wagging the dog. Such is the case with hydrogen. Recently I talked about how President Obama once again has proposed to slash the hydrogen budget by $70 million through the Department of Energy • Read More »

Once again President Obama is proposing to cut the hydrogen budget from the DOE (Department of Energy). Apparently our President does think hydrogen has anything to do with clean energy since he is also proposing increasing spending on clean energy programs to $8 billion. The hydrogen funding cuts that Obama is proposing will amount to • Read More »

Since this is celebrated as Martin Luther King Day across the U. S. I thought I would put my own hydrogen car spin on this special day. It starts out with Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. And my apologies upfront to the late Dr. King, his family and the American people for • Read More »

The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced their 105-page draft version of the “Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Plan.” According to the DOE, “The U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s or the Department’s) hydrogen and fuel cell efforts are part of a broad portfolio of activities to build a competitive • Read More »

As the U. S. has faltered in auto sales across the board recently, China still continues in strong production and sales. In fact, China is so strong that some are wondering if there is a bubble looming for this country of 1.3 billion people. But, what has been under-reported by the mainstream media is that • Read More »

The Hydrogen.gov website is now up and running. This is good for not only private sector advocates for hydrogen, but it shows that the public sector is getting serious about hydrogen as well. For years, hydrogen advocates like myself have complained that the will of our government seems weak when in comes to developing H2 • Read More »