What the Bush regime did right
Feb. 23rd, 2003 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusBush is getting a lot of flack for his proposal which supports the development of hydrogen-powered cars. Now, simultaneous with this, he is repealing laws that force auto makers to make more efficient gas-powered vehicles, which is kinda messed up.
However, if we're only going to choose one of these (not that there's any reason why we should), I think they're going the right way. Critics say that it will take over 20 years to develop them to the point where they'd be a viable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. Twenty years is not that long of a time, people. If that estimate is accurate, Most of us will still be alive then. The children who are infants now will be just finishing college, and ready to buy their first good cars, then. Their children will never know a city choked with smog from gasoline engines.
Plus, we don't have to wait until they're completely equivalent in convenience and economy to gasoline powered cars. Many people will start buying them earlier than that. Early adopters, people who like to always have the latest technology and are rich enough to afford it, eventually they'll be the same status symbol that hybrid cars are among the Bay Area yuppies now. And the cars will be in production long before they're ready to completely replace gasoline. Billion of dollars have already been spent on research. Prototypes have already been made. I did few minutes of research this morning, just to see what the state of the art really was, and even I was pleasantly surprised:
Six months ago, DaimlerChrysler did their first coast-to-coast drive of a prototype: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52877,00.html
Toyota has delivered six functioning fuel-cell vehicles to UC Davis for research: http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/120602/dl_fuel-cell.html
You can buy a kit for a toy car that runs on a fuel cell right now: http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/store/fuelcell1.html
GM has started with figuring out how to use the advantages of hydrogen fuel-cell power, rather than just compensate for its disadvantages, in it's "skateboard" concept car: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00034FE5-BA99-1D80-90FB809EC5880000
Cool stuff. If the option is either continue polluting for 20 years, then cut it out completely, or pollute slightly less for 20 years, and then pollute only half as much, I think Bush made the right choice.
First time for everything, I guess.
However, if we're only going to choose one of these (not that there's any reason why we should), I think they're going the right way. Critics say that it will take over 20 years to develop them to the point where they'd be a viable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. Twenty years is not that long of a time, people. If that estimate is accurate, Most of us will still be alive then. The children who are infants now will be just finishing college, and ready to buy their first good cars, then. Their children will never know a city choked with smog from gasoline engines.
Plus, we don't have to wait until they're completely equivalent in convenience and economy to gasoline powered cars. Many people will start buying them earlier than that. Early adopters, people who like to always have the latest technology and are rich enough to afford it, eventually they'll be the same status symbol that hybrid cars are among the Bay Area yuppies now. And the cars will be in production long before they're ready to completely replace gasoline. Billion of dollars have already been spent on research. Prototypes have already been made. I did few minutes of research this morning, just to see what the state of the art really was, and even I was pleasantly surprised:
Six months ago, DaimlerChrysler did their first coast-to-coast drive of a prototype: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52877,00.html
Toyota has delivered six functioning fuel-cell vehicles to UC Davis for research: http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/120602/dl_fuel-cell.html
You can buy a kit for a toy car that runs on a fuel cell right now: http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/store/fuelcell1.html
GM has started with figuring out how to use the advantages of hydrogen fuel-cell power, rather than just compensate for its disadvantages, in it's "skateboard" concept car: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00034FE5-BA99-1D80-90FB809EC5880000
Cool stuff. If the option is either continue polluting for 20 years, then cut it out completely, or pollute slightly less for 20 years, and then pollute only half as much, I think Bush made the right choice.
First time for everything, I guess.
