I’ve talked about Roger Billings several times in the past and his pioneering work in hydrogen over the past 40 years. I’ve read his book, “The Hydrogen World View” which is an excellent read if you’ve not already done so.
So, Dr. Roger E. Billings has popped up on my radar once again, because I see that he had put up a new blog a couple of days ago and made a first post concerning how we can go forward with the practical commercialization of hydrogen.
According to Dr. Billings he had the $3 billion in financing he was looking for to put up a skeletal hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The only problem was that the financiers were foreign oil interests.
Besides helping to clean up the environment one of the other major reasons to go to hydrogen is for the sake of energy independence so that we don’t have to be reliant on Libya, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or any other foreign nation for our energy needs.
So, Dr. Billings is looking for domestic financing including political will at this point. With the Obama Administration and the Secretary of Energy wanting to slash the federal hydrogen budget by 40-percent, this will be a tough row to hoe.
But the revolutions and unrest in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Croatia may give the President pause to get his paws off the hydrogen solution. If private financing can be found to get this H2 project off the ground, then commercialization will be around the next corner. How does this sound? Profound? 🙂
Why are foreign OIL connected investors more interested in commercializing hydrogen than the current U.S. government? Maybe it’s time to pray that either
A a good alternative to Obama materializes or B that Obama gets a clue. Judging from what Obama and Chu have done so far, I very much doubt that B is possible. The last thing America needs is to be dependent on foreign countries for hydrogen and hydrogen specific technology. I’m all for building a domestic base of support for a hydrogen based transit system to replace the current OIL based one. America should be leading the charge to clean up transit and show the world a path to energy independence.
Speaking of Libya and Egypt and other places in the middle east where there is unrest, why isn’t the U.S. military being mobilized to protect civilians? I find it interesting that right when the U.S. is pulling out of the middle east is when there is potentially a greater need than ever. I hope for the sake of all involved in the unrest that the U.S. pull out doesn’t prove disastrous.
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