Hydrogen advocate responds to DOE funding cut

AutoblogGreen reader responses to the huge cut in DOE hydrogen vehicle spending was mixed, but mostly in favor of shifting limited federal money away from H₂ and into batteries and cars with plugs. Strong hydrogen vehicle advocate Greg Blencoe is keeping up the fight, though, and has written a lengthy response to the Obama administration's decision.

Blencoe's general agrument is that America's oil addicion needs all the help it can get, just ask Toyota. When the problem is so huge and America so sick on oil, any potential help, any doctor, should be consulted. When the facts come out, Blencoe says, hydrogen vehicles will beat battery-powered plug-ins and, "history will put plug-in battery technology in the same category as the dot-com companies, real estate bubble, and corn ethanol disaster."

He also belives the Obama and DOE Secretary Steven Chu will change their minds about this decision once they get the facts. Trouble is, Chu and Obama don't seem to be the shoot-first, think-later types. Yes, they want to move quickly, but that doesn't mean they're hasty. Plug-in advoate Paul Scott thinks that the DOE's shift won't be retracted. In a recent email, he writes, "Listen closely... that sound you hear is the banging of the final nail in the fuel cell coffin. Sweet music to our ears, my friend."

[Source: Greg Blencoe, Paul Scott]