1 yr aniv of Bush Hydrogen vision - and Clinton Gore hybrid is next 60 yr

Choice! On this one year anniversary of Bush Hydrogen car vision, it seems Gore/Clinton were correct again - and Bush is again off in an alternate Universe. Robert Siegel has a great article in Scientific American this month (discussed at the NPR link below) showing that the way to go now and for the next 20 to 60 years is the hybrid car (maybe even made better with the available today off the shelf tighten transmission that Gore/Clinton funded research on - oh wait - the hybrid has that feature :-) )

Hybrid cars achieve the same pollution savings - fuel generation through fuel usage - today - as we are likely to get from a hydrogen car - and the hydrogen car is not likely to be ready until todays new born is applying for Social Security. The price difference between a "standard" gasoline-burning and a hybrid-electric is holding at $3,000. And at $2 per gal gas, that gets paid off quickly. No doubt the fuel cell drive-train cost (approximately $40,000) and other start up costs will drop over time - it is just not going to happen in the working lifetime of today's newborns. And while Hydrogen can be had in other ways besides "cracking" natural gas, Wind and solar do more good replacing coal, than they do replacing (compared to coal) less polluting oil.

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1840757

Fuel-Cell Hype vs. Economic Reality

All Things Considered audio April 16, 2004

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with journalist Matt Wald, author of an article questioning the optimistic vision of the so-called "hydrogen economy" published in the May 2004 issue of Scientific American. Wald talks about the shortcomings of fuel-cell technology, and why some experts say the technology may not meet expectations.May 2004 Issue: * Do Fuel Cells Make Environmental Sense?

Unfortunately the actual article in Scientific American discussed in the above free NPR audio link is a pay for download on the internet article. But I found the article a great read!

...you take into account this man's invention.

From this Slashdot article: "A Japanese inventor named Kohei Minato has created a new kind of motor. It uses magnetism to perpetuate the motor motion. As a result the motors uses 80% less energy than a conventional motor, while still maintaing the same horsepower. "Minato assures us that he hasn't transcended the laws of physics. The force supplying the unexplained extra power out is generated by the magnetic strength of the permanent magnets embedded in the rotor. 'I'm simply harnessing one of the four fundamental forces of nature,' he says." On top of the energy savings the motor runs cool to the touch and is significantly quieter than a tradtitionally powered fan. Sound to good to be true? Well he's already started selling the fan to a chain of convience stores in Japan. Hopefully soon the design will make it in to your home PC, allowing them to run much quieter."
Japan.com article


Edit: Corrected Slashdot link

FYI

I didn't RTFA closely. My bad.

I listened to it while making dinner. Not a lot of wasted verbiage or fluff.

Yet another instance of Gore/Clinton beign right on a science/tech issue.