We placed a man on the moon in less than a decade after the call
to action. Why can’t we do the same for hydrogen? On June 14,
2011, Bloomberg News reported that Energy Secretary Steven Chu
“whose mandate includes getting more fuel-efficient cars on U.S.
roads, is disregarding advisers in his own department and
seeking to cut almost half the federal funding for hydrogen-
powered autos.” Chu explained that “hydrogen fuel-cell
technology” developed by carmakers “isn’t yet practical,”
according to the story. Yet, Mary Nichols, chairwoman of
California’s Air Resource Board, contends that Chu’s
“explanations don’t make sense to me. They are not based on the
facts as we know them.” In light of the Obama Administration’s
and automaker’s July, 2011 agreement to achieve 54.5 mpg fleet
averages by 2025, de-incentivizing hydrogen research hamstrings
such goals. These actions undercut progress on hydrogen. So why
take them? As we look into the future, hydrogen must have a
presence. While hybrid vehicles play a stop-gap ro