Today, seven very diverse national organizations sent a letter to congress asking to restore federal funding for fuel cells and hydrogen. (Have you sent your letter yet?) It’s exciting to see groups come together like this in support of the technology. More info below.
WASHINGTON, DC - National organizations representing health, environmental and energy policy interests joined four national trade associations today in calling for the restoration of the federal hydrogen and fuel cell research and deployment program.
“Fuel cells are essential to achieving national goals for energy security, sustainability and global competitiveness,” the organizations wrote in a letter to the House and Senate Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee leadership.
The seven groups are the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM), American Lung Association (ALA), Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), The Stella Group, Ltd, the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council (USFCC).
The Obama Administration’s 2010 Department of Energy (DOE) budget proposes to cut the federal hydrogen fuel cell research and deployment budget by more than two thirds, or $130 million, eliminating funds for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle program and market transformation programs.
The organizations wrote that “attaining our national goal of sustainable transportation will require a diverse portfolio of advanced vehicles. Fuel cell vehicles should be part of our portfolio.”
“Industry, academic researchers, and the Department of Energy, working together, have achieved substantial success in addressing technology, infrastructure and cost challenges. Real world data collected by DOE and others confirms that fuel cell vehicles are inherently low in smog-causing emissions, cut carbon emissions by more than half and achieve nearly 60% efficiency, which is two to three times the fuel economy of comparable combustion vehicles,” they wrote.
“We need to maintain momentum in the hydrogen fuel cell pathway…We urge you to maintain U.S. leadership in developing and deploying fuel cell transportation by restoring fuel cell funding to FY 2009 levels,” they wrote.
The full text of the letter is available here or via email upon request.
|Back|
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
August 22, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
Richard Horwitz says...
Flash! “Airgas in hydrogen-cell deal” This was a small heading in the Philadelphia Inquirer Business section on 8/19/09 “Airgas Inc., Radnor, said it had signed an agreement to market and service hydrogen fuel cells made by Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc. Nuvera, which has offices in Billerica, Mass., and Milan, Italy, will make fuel-cell systems for such as forklifts. Airgas, an industrial-gas company, will install the hydrogen cells and then continue servicing them, said company spokesman Jay Worley.” There was a little more voicing projections for the future with this: “the intention is that, by 2014, about 7000 forklifts, less than 1% of the total number of forklift trucks trucks in use today, would run on hydrogen cells.” Ya gotta have faith!