Most important for the future is the way us use non-renewable natural resources today. If we continue on the present course, oil that took untold millions of years to form on Earth will be squandered in about a century, all in the name of economic expediency.  Are we going to be fools and burn all of the oil reserves off of the Planet, and leave nothing behind for medicines, plastics and other materials, for the millions of years to follow us?  Surely all future generations would consider us incomprehensibly stupid in placing money ahead of the Life of the entire Planet.

If we were to use Hydrogen in fuel cells to propel our vehicles and to generate electricity in an independent, decentralized manner, we would end our dependency on oil and will save whatever is left for the millenniums to follow us.  

Hydrogen can also be used in conventional piston engines, with simple modifications to the carburetor.  It would be a simple matter to provide conversion kits to move from gasoline combustion to hydrogen, much in the same manner as natural gas is used in some vehicles where gas is abundant, in Texas, for example.  

Hydrogen as used in fuel cells has the known potential to generate abundant electric power which can directly be used in cars, buses, and homes. Fuel cells do not pollute the environment with any carbon based exhaust, since water is the only product of hydrogen combustion. The range of operation of a vehicle is enhanced, because of the efficiency of the energy conversion involved. There would be no batteries to dispose of, no dependence on centralized power girds, no financial dependence on oil producers.

An initial conversion of city buses to fuel cell vehicles could literally save lives in a megalopolis like Mexico City. The buses travel a known route, and therefore can be refueled at the terminals.  A conversion to hydrogen can be mandated by the Legislature, in due time, assuming that the Government answers to the People, and not to an oil oligarchy, as is the case in the USA today.

Hydrogen can be piped through existing natural gas pipelines. In fact, in those countries with abundant natural gas reserves, a direct conversion from natural gas to hydrogen can be done at the pump, before the gas enters the vehicle. All vehicles should run on pure hydrogen, not methane or internal gasoline converters since any reliance on non-renewable energy will create a legacy of monetary dependency in the developing world. 

Hydrogen can be produced as a end product of the combustion of radioactive waste, such as weapons grade uranium. The technology for the direct conversion of radioactive emissions to electricity is not recent, and has been used in several space probes to the outer planets.  There are Russian pilot water desalination plants in the Black Sea which transform salt water to hydrogen and partly back to fresh water, using breeder reactor technology.

New advances in wind power generation have made the use of hydrogen even more attractive in those areas where wind is most abundant, and perhaps nothing else, such as the numerous wind swept deserts in the World. Hydrogen is the ideal energy storage medium.  

Hydrogen can also be generated at the vehicle itself, by incorporating a simple hydrolysis device into the vehicle.  Cars could then refueled at off-peak hours, when they are parked overnight in garages, at a lower cost than gasoline, even at $30.- per barrel.  One would simply plug the car into an outlet in the garage, and it would fill up overnight with combustion grade hydrogen separated from clean water.  

Perhaps most importantly, any nation on the third world can generate hydrogen by way of its excess capacity in hydroelectric or geothermal plants. Such a use of generating capacity in off-peak hours would liberate all of the world from the enormous drain of hard currency which is used to pay for oil bills rather than critical social infrastructure. The use of hydrogen co-generating plants has been proven to be a cost effective means of achieving a symbiosis between the old technologies and the new, hydrogen-based technology.

What is needed now is the political will to invest in the hydrogen economy, for the sake of the Life of the Planet and the well-being of all future generations. Let us not shy from using essentially limitless financial resources in forming that future which is now before us.  If we act now, this will be our finest legacy, if we don't, it will be our biggest blunder!

Atlanta, GA
February 7, 1997