>It's a fairy tale. There is no way to free up that much >Hydrogen without input of massive amounts of ENERGY.
This will be not so much a response to a specific post, but I am more just using the subject header as a foil for a few thoughts.... just my personal opinions, and certainly at times at odds with those of many EV drivers and writers. Many EV California drivers and readers know that there were some stinging falsehoods mixed in with the truth as to why we don't have EVs for sale here. In short, EVs were not brought to market in any real way, but the auto companies "concluded" that they were neither financially viable nor wanted, without actually trying, as much as they could have done, to sell them. The reaction of many EV fans to the fuel cell discussions has sometimes been completely black-and-white negative. But I disagree with this. I think fuel cells could be an important part of the future of transportation, as well as powering smaller devices (such as the laptop on which this is being composed... as it runs on battery power). In particular, fuel cells hold out the hope of efficient transformation of liquid fuel to useable electricity. This is critical because most of the proposed liquid fuels are so much more energy dense than batteries that it isn't funny (at least that's my take on their capacity). I don't think we'd have to sit here and have these well-intended armchair debates as to the pros and cons of this or that exotic fuel or battery scheme if the fuel and car industry were somewhat more genuinely capitalistically competitive, but I"m not sure that it is. I'm not so much an "environmentalist" as a fan of technology, human industry, invention... finding newer and better ways to solve engineering challenges and finding the business effort and creativity to make them happen. This is why I have been trying to spend some time over the last few years on the EV question.... because the lack of real effort to bring EVs to a real market... and the lack of honesty, were clues to me that a real competitive situation was one that perhaps did not quite exist. So, while we could do with some help from the markets in trying to decide our debates, my personal guestimate is that, indeed, fuel cells *may* play some important role in our future transportation needs, if we can ever get the fuel and car industries to be a bit more honestly competitive. It is hard for me to predict precisely what the role will be, because it is not just a matter of which technologies are superior, but also of trying to read the tea leaves of anti-competitive entities such as Exxon-Mobil, and their machinations. As for fuels, I always keep an eye on which fuels can be fossil-fuel derived, because they are the ones which are more "allowed" into fuel cell discussions. Others, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are not as featured in fuel cell discussions because (in my view) they are not as fossil-fuel derived, but can be made and used by a much wider range of people and not just by the fossil fuel companies. In the meantime, there would be nothing wrong, and much right, with continuing to try to use and develop and improve Battery Electric Vehicles, such as the RAV4 EV and the like. History will record the dishonesty of those car companies (basically: all of them) who have gone so far out of their way to deny the very existence of those folks who desire such vehicles, or who already have them and in many cases are so very satisfied in so many ways. Those folks, in my view, don't need to see "all bad" in fuel cell development just because that development is obviously being used by the powers-that-be to put off BEV production and development, and other alt-fuel production and development. Just got back from a long drive. I wonder when someone's going to equip all those SUVs out on the road as grid-chargeable hybrids with regen brakes. Boy are they burning up some Middle-Eastern Fuel, out on the roads of America. I also wonder when an American President will even dare *mention* the need to develop a great deal more of the American Southwest with solar cells. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/CNxFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
