Schwarzenegger promotes hydrogen fuel in L.A.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who already owns a Hummer fueled with vegetable oil, today touted the latest “green” addition to his fleet: a hydrogen-powered Honda FCX Clarity.
“I just got the Clarity, which is a wonderful hydrogen vehicle,” Schwarzenegger told reporters at California’s first retail station to sell both gasoline and hydrogen, in West Los Angeles. “We’re all fighting over who is driving it. My daughters want to drive it all the time and take it away from me.”
Schwarzenegger dropped by the Shell station, which opened last summer, to lend his star power to the Hydrogen Road Tour, a rally designed to highlight advances in fuel-cell technology. Seven automakers are taking part in the nine-day, 1,700-mile trip from San Diego to Vancouver, Canada.
Members of the public can test drive 11 fuel-cell cars and SUVs at one of 28 stops along the way. Hydrogen vehicles generate no tailpipe emissions aside from water vapor.
“I’m actually cleaning the air as I drive. What could be better than that?” said Stephanie White, a state biologist who showed off her hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox to the governor at the stop in West L.A..
But not everyone is a fan of the technology. Critics say the fuel is difficult to store and can require more energy to produce than it provides once it's in the car.
Emissions can also be generated during the production of the fuel. The fuel cells are expensive – at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars per vehicle, according to Spencer Quong of the Union of Concerned Scientists -- because they contain precious metals such as platinum and palladium.
Infrastructure is another problem. There are just 26 hydrogen fueling stations in California, making commutes difficult.
Although Honda and General Motors have released a limited number of hydrogen-fueled cars to select Southern California households, they will provide them only to people who live within a few miles of several fueling stations in the Los Angeles area. Critics argue that building a viable network of fueling stations could cost billions.
The Obama administration has proposed to slash funding for research into hydrogen-fueled vehicles by $101 million to $68 million in 2010, arguing that the technology is not viable in the near term.
Patrick Serfass, a spokesman for the National Hydrogen Assn., a Washington-based group that includes General Motors Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Shell Hydrogen, took issue with that proposal at today’s event.
“There is no silver bullet,” he said. “Only with a variety of technologies are we going to be able to meet our environmental and technological challenges.”
Schwarzenegger said he wants California to be at the forefront of all energy-saving technologies, including fuel-cell and plug-in cars.
“We don’t want to choose the winners,” he said. “I think the market will decide.”
-- Alexandra Zavis
Wow, amazing ignorance reported here...
"difficult to store" Hello... if it is so difficult, then why are all these customers driving and refueling every day without trouble? And driving to Vancouver Canada taking just 5 minutes each to refuel. It seems to me BATTERIES are the difficult storage issue for cars trying to STORE electricity in a lighweight package and refuel in minutes. Fuel Cell cars make their own electricity!
"emissions can be produced making fuel"... excuse me Ms. Reporter.. but did you ask Mr. Quong if emissions are produced refining and shipping, fighting wars over AND burning gasoline? What part of "Zero Emisisons Hydrogen Vehicle" is hard to understand?
"hundreds of thousand dollars... because of precious metals"... old news here, low volume makes cost high and metals have already been reduced to manageable levels. Plus the metals are recyclable/reuseable so with time no new raw metals will be needed.
"Obama administration.. cut funding". Yes, against his own Department of Energy science and research that shows all their own progress goals are being met or exceeded. Seems to be ignoring science for politics.
"building a station infrastructure will take billions of dollars", yes it will, eventually, and over a long time. Would we rather send the billions overseas for oil? Hydrogen IS produced domestically, that is why it is so good. Zero emissions, Zero dependence on oil. What is so hard to understand about that? I expect better reporting from LA Times, maybe next Time(s).
Posted by: Holly | May 28, 2009 at 05:45 AM
Well stated, Holly!
Posted by: Kirk | May 28, 2009 at 07:51 PM
In February of 2004 the L.A. Times quoted the Governator as saying that hydrogen refueling stations should be established along all 26 of California's Interstate Highways.
I could only come up with 23 Interstate Highways from memory (5, 105, 205, 405, 505, 605, 805, 8, 10, 110, 210, 710, 15, 215, 40, 80, 280, 380, 580, 680, 780, 880, and 980). Looking at a map only added one other (238). The two missing Interstate Highways were 305 (the secret designation of Business Loop 80 in Sacramento) and 905, the future route along the Mexican border (currently CA-905).
Well, it's been 5 years since that editorial and the Governator has done nothing towards implementing his plan, even when there was much more money available than there is now.
In light of the current budget crisis, does anyone honestly believe that he is going to make progress ion this in his final 2 years in office?
Posted by: Larry Scholnick | June 05, 2009 at 01:23 PM