Abraham Pumps Up Hydrogen

Washington has solved the age-old chicken-and-egg riddle — as it applies to fuel cell technology and an infrastructure for hydrogen delivery.

“Which should come first, the vehicle, or the system that supports it?” Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham asks the Detroit Economic Club. “Our answer is both. We've concluded that unless we work on parallel tracks, developing the vehicle and the infrastructure concurrently, this process would take three decades longer.”

The Bush Admin. promises “full government backing” of both areas of research. And if all goes well, commercialization could occur as early as 2015, Abraham says.

His remarks follow President Bush's State of the Union speech, in which he urged Congress to pass his energy bill — remarks that saw fuel-cell-related stocks rise sharply.

Washington believes in a hydrogen economy and wants to build it, Abraham says. “(The President) wants this to happen in our lifetime — sooner rather than later. And he believes that the U.S. and Detroit should lead the way.”

The Bush Admin. proposes to spend $1.7 billion over the next five years on its FreedomCAR and hydrogen fuel initiatives. The money will be directed to lowering the cost of fuel cells by a factor of 10.