Putting the Environment on Hold - The False Hope of Alternate Fuel Technology

It seems like just a few years ago that car technology was stagnating. I remember a class I took in college in fundamental physics. The professor grew most excited when he talked about the prospect of new technologies in transportation. He told us about hydrogen cars that emit water instead of CO2. He told us about the once and future electric car and the ability of the auto manufacturers to upturn the current paradigm that has us relying solely on oil reserves in favor of healthier, more robust technology.

He would go on at length for the entire lecture hour until he seemingly grew tired of his own wishful thinking and brought us all back down to earth with a quick rundown of the current state of the economy and scientific development:

• The public has not realized the true dangers of petroleum based fuels.
• Science has yet to prove those dangers.
• The cost of research and development for an unproven technology is not yet worth it.
• The government has just a bit too much interest invested in oil.

As much as it might seem as though the conversation quickly shifted to politics, the truth is that he was merely apologetically informing us that if we were to get as excited as he was by the prospect of clean, renewable energy, we would be equally disappointed.

So, we didn't get excited. No one got excited. The science was there - it all made logical sense, but it wasn't quite feasible and no one was wiling to spend the money to make it feasible. Even those advancements that were notable, such as the growth of the electric car and the development of gas saving technologies in hybrid cars were left in waiting. At that point, Toyota was still the only company to have made a hybrid car, and with gas hovering at $1.19 a gallon, no one wanted to spend the extra $5,000 for a car that would take 10 years to save them any money at the pump.

Fast forward 5 years later and everything has changed. The list my physics professor gave us what seems like so long is slowly being checked off, one piece at a time.

The public has been made to realize the dangers of petroleum based fuels. While there is still a substantial sector of society bent on ignoring those dangers, everyone at least understand what global warming is and can start to see the general effect it is having on the planet. Even the President, a one time staunch denier of such ecological damage whose fortune was made from oil has admitted that we have a problem.

And the scientific community has finally its resources to proving the risks that we face. The IPCC published its landmark, world-wide effort last year, outlining the path our planet is headed down if we do not stop global warming. Al Gore, a one time President-Elect has become the figurehead of the movement and recently shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the IPCC for his work. The world knows that there is a problem now.

Which ultimately makes the cost of research and development for alternative fuel sources worthwhile. It often takes a universal wake up call such as an international panel announcing that the icecaps are melting. It takes a public outcry for products that offer alternative fuel sources and eventually, especially in this market economy, the companies start to adjust their business practices - not because they actually care about the environment - but because they can now make money of it.

However, the race by the car companies to be the first and the only source of alternative transportation means has caused me to raise an eyebrow or two in recent months. First, there is the Chevy campaign that claims a bevy of alternative fuels sources for its new line of vehicles. Let us not forget foremost that Chevy is just now producing a hybrid vehicle, and it took 10 years to do so, after Toyota's Prius first rolled off the assembly line.

Now, they are making claims along with other car companies like GM that they have electric and hydrogen powered alternatives. The car is still in concept phase, meaning it has yet to be built, but GM is throwing more than $1 billion behind the effort in a final push to make the Hydrogen Fuel Cell a reality, something my college professor and my high school teachers before him repeatedly said would only be a few years down the line.

Why is the hydrogen fuel cell such a monumental feat? Along with the fact that it does away with the internal combustion engine altogether - the industrial icon of the 20th century - it does not pollute at all. A hydrogen fuel cell uses atomic level technology and hydrogen - the most plentiful element in the universe - to fuel the car while creating water H2O as a byproduct. It is the perfect solution, and it is also very hard to imagine. The technology needed to compress hydrogen to the degree necessary to create a viable fuel cell while keeping vehicles safe (without the right design, cars would become rolling bombs) is still quite elusive.

So, what purpose do Chevy and GM think they are serving by spending vast amounts of money on a still unproven technology while only offering hybrid models in SUV form that still barely offer better than 25 MPG? In one part, it is publicity. The public knows very well that they need to stop using gasoline. They also know that the best options right to do so right now are Japanese vehicles. By manufacturing a mid-grade of hybrid cars and throwing billions into research of other technologies, the car manufacturers are able to appease nearly everyone. Oil is still being used, Americans can still support local industry and the environment is once again on hold.