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March 8, 2004
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles: Hype or Hero?
Statement by Jason Mark, director of the Clean Vehicles Program, and David Friedman, research director for the Clean Vehicles Program
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been widely hailed as a solution for reducing our nation's oil dependence and eliminating pollution from our transportation system. A series of recent reports—including those from the National Research Council and the American Physical Society—have highlighted the uncertainty and challenges, as well as environmental potential, of the transition to a renewable hydrogen fuel cell future.
Despite their promise, waiting for hydrogen fuel cells to deliver us from the economic and environmental perils of driving would be irresponsible. Pollution and oil use for the next decade or more will be dominated by the cars that are being bought today, and fuel cell vehicles will not make a significant national impact for at least two decades. We need to pursue immediate, readily available improvements using conventional and hybrid technology.
Just as the promise of hydrogen should not lead us to ignore practical near-term solutions, the challenges facing hydrogen should not lead us to abandon efforts to achieve a renewable hydrogen future. Efficiency alone cannot wean us off foreign oil or provide the dramatic cuts in global warming gases that must be achieved. More sustainable travel will ultimately require the use of non-petroleum, zero-carbon fuels. Renewable-based hydrogen is one of the most promising long-term options for transportation. Because the transition will take decades, and will face many challenges, we must start today down the road to the future.
The source of hydrogen is the most important environmental issue facing the technology. When the hydrogen is made from natural gas, as it is today in most commercial applications, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles offer large environmental gains compared with today's cars. With few fuel cell vehicles on the road over the coming decade or more, relatively small amounts of natural gas will be needed to fuel the introduction of fuel cells. A clean and sustainable hydrogen future, however, depends on the ultimate transition to renewable sources of hydrogen. Hydrogen made from wind, solar, or biomass energy can be an affordable solution in the long term, but strong policies need to be in place to ensure their development, including increased research and development funding for renewable energy technologies and strong electric-sector policies to encourage renewable energy deployment today.
In short, we agree that a clean hydrogen fuel cell vehicle future faces many challenges and will take time to develop. We must move forward with more efficient conventional and hybrid vehicle technology today. Given the pressing economic and environmental risks posed by automobile travel, however, we cannot afford passing up the tremendous long-term potential of renewable hydrogen fuel cells. |
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