Saturday, May 26, 2007

Hydrogen highway as much as a reality as a bullet train between Calgary and Edmonton?

The BC government wants to set up hydrogen fuelling stations from San Diego to Whistler to form a hydrogen friendly highway by 2010 to encourage Californians to come to the Olympics. Despite Campbell’s push to get more stations set up in the Greater Vancouver area and on the island, Governor Schwarzenegger believes that it will not be a reality until at least 2015. A major obstacle is that Washington and Oregon has yet to commit to a hydrogen future since there are no major fuel-cell industries in their states to promote. This will leave a substantial gap in the highway. Another major problem is that the North American car manufactures are not expecting to have hydrogen cars in showrooms for another decade.
Will Campbell’s dream become a reality by 2010 or will it become another bullet train dream that never makes it to the station?
The higway would be a significant step towards reducing our environmental foot print and to have the highway by the Olympics would bring about awareness to the issue. Although it might never become a reality there is no harm in attempting to achieve that goal. BC has already made significant gains in purchasing 20 hydrogen buses and developing hydrogen fuelling stations. Heightened awareness from the highway might create pressure to increase the development of hydrogen vehicles and place greater pressure on governments and the automakers to fund and develop hydrogen vehicles sooner.
Every dream has its goal; it just might take longer to get to Campbell's dream than he wants.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't have much faith in Hydrogen. It sounds like a lot of things we've herd in the past; say the battery powered car.

The better option is a shift in planning and living styles. Building more densely populated cities. There is a reason why New York received the recognition as North America's most environmentally friendly city.

http://www.greenbelt.org/downloads/resources/newswire/newswire_11_04GreenManhattan.pdf