Energy Myth Four – The Hydrogen Economy Is A Panacea To The Nation’s Energy Problems

Americans must make their vehicles less polluting within the next two decades if the country is to avoid the serious and potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change. A growing scientific consensus is emerging which supports the argument that the nation and the world must reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases by more than 50% by 2050 to have high confidence of avoiding disastrous impacts. Yet it is an especially difficult target for the United States, since its population is likely to grow 50% during the next half-century and our GDP will triple. Whereas the average car on the road gets 20 miles per gallon (mpg) of gasoline today and new vehicles average only 24mpg (NCEP, 2004, p. 8), fuel economy will have to jump to at least 60mpg of gasoline in 2050. Many people in the United States – including the President and Secretary of Energy – have promoted the use of hydrogen as a potential solution to these problems. Hydrogen, known to physicists as the simplest element, is an abundant resource, making up more than 90% of the composition of the universe. More aptly described as an “energy carrier” rather than a fuel source, hydrogen is frequently produced directly and indirectly through steam reforming (separating carbon from hydrogen using high powered steam), electrolysis (splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen), and photolysis (exploiting chemical reactions to produce hydrogen) (Berinstein, 2001; Petchers, 2003). Because the combustion of hydrogen produces no smoke or particulate matter (and when burned with oxygen produces water vapor as its only byproduct), politicians and energy analysts have been quick to proclaim hydrogen as a “silver-bullet” solution to the country’s energy problems. For example, President GeorgeW. Bush announced a $1.2 billion “Hydrogen Fuel Initiative” in his 2003 State of the Union Address (2003a). The program attempts