Hydrogen Economy: Two steps back

Well, so much for the arrival of the hydrogen economy.

Despite Barack Obama's commitment to a green energy strategy, the economic reality of 2009 will likely limit the actual conversion of a fossil fuel world to more environmentally benign energy sources. Especially with oil prices down in the dumps.

How can the U.S. expect the investment required to finance a) the re-tooling of the beleaguered auto industry and b) the distribution infrastructure to flow into green options when rescue and survival are foremost in the minds of both investors and corporations?

Obviously if Obama ignores the debasing effect of expanding the U.S. dollar money supply, and conjures from thin air the $385 billion he has said he will commit to infrastructure, such investment is thus rendered moot. Not to mention the fact that materials prices have declined sharply, making it much cheaper for the material cost.

But hydrogen will not be leading this transition. In this I was clearly wrong.The physical conundrum of the energy required to meet its cooling/compression requirements is still way in excess of its available energy density.

I never concluded a deal with HTEC and have since been focused on my Midas Letter. (http://www.MidasLetter.com) . While one eye is kept on the green technology evolution, for now, it looks to be further from reality than it was at this time last year.

The Hydrogen Age Is Here.....Now.

I started driving this hydrogen truck on January 10th this year.

Its a trip driving it around, because people will stop you to ask about the truck, where do I get the hydrogen, can they buy one, and so on. It might become annoying to some people after a while, but I love it.

I love it because if I could identify a worthy cause to get behind in a big way in this life, I had have to say kick-starting the hydrogen era has got to be number one.

Oh I'm sure a lot of people might be shocked that its not world peace, the end of poverty, or a cure for cancer. But none of those things threaten to wipe out the entire planet in one mass extinction quite like atmospheric chemistry imbalance.

Evidence gathered by scientists suggests that two mass extinctions that occurred 251 million years ago and 55 million years ago respectively were precluded by global warming events. In the earlier example, 96% of all marine species and 70% of all land vertebrates were lost. The direct cause points to a large scale release of methane hydrate, a substance presently bound in ice at the poles and on the ocean floor, which it appears was induced by the warming of atmospheric temperatures by as little as 11 degrees centigrade.

Looking at the present math put forth by climatologists, this implies a worst case potential replication of that event within 15 years, and a best case 200 years.

In any case, the risk from such an event, and the scope of its impact, causes me to place hydrogen at the very top of my "Things To Do Before I Die" list.