Earth Equity News

Do Not Abandon Hydrogen. Editorial, NYTimes, August 9, 2009. "Energy Secretary Steven Chu, recently called for eliminating the $100 million in his budget devoted to research on hydrogen technology. He told Congress that hydrogen cars are unlikely to be deployed on a mass market scale within the next 20 years. And there are other technologies, like plug-in vehicles or even cars run on clean diesel, that will do more to reduce fossil fuel consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions in that time. We agree with much of Mr. Chu's assessment. But it seems wrong to cut out all research. The $100 million (as opposed to Mr. Bush's $1.2 billion) is not a large amount to invest to keep this promise alive -- especially since no one is using the program as an excuse for avoiding here-and-now regulations and innovation. Fortunately, the House and the Senate have voted to restore the hydrogen money. Unfortunately, they also slashed funds requested by Mr. Chu for eight new research labs to develop new energy technologies, from solar electricity to carbon sequestration. We hope these can be restored when the two bills go to conference."