10-17-2009, 07:41 PM
As Bill noted, fossil-fuel is a good range extender if we can shift the bulk of transport (which is primarily 30 mile and shorter daily distances) off fossil fuel. This was the point the non-GM guys were trying to make in the program. Most people don't seem to understand that hydrogen is NOT an energy source. You can either make hydrogen from fossil-fuels (which is ridiculous because it is much less efficient and very costly to do than just using the fossil fuel directly), or you can make it by electrolyzing water (same issue...very inefficient way to use electricity, not to mention the horrendous technical issues with storage and transport). Our new braniac Secretary of Energy recently tried to shut down the subsidies being given to hydrogen development because he understands that it is technological folly, and submitted a budget that would move that money to more logical technologies. However, he was overridden by the pols whose campaign donors (auto and petroleum industries) have been getting all that subsidy money. I'd guess that GM gets a lot of that hydrogen money which is why they are still pushing this silly fuel cell idea. So, a lot of our tax money is still going into this stupid boondoggle.