Hydrogen critics come and go with some making good points and other disseminating bad information. Every once in a while, I come across a website that is willfully distributing bad information about hydrogen that needs to be confronted.
Generally, I like “green” websites and blogs and travel to several every day to check out what people are saying about different environmental issues. So, when doing a little hydrogen research, I stumbled upon an article at Greenbang.com titled “Hydrogen highway: won’t somebody think of the water?” and was intrigued.
Over at this blog they ask the question, “What about all the water we’re going to need to supply hydrogen fuel?” This sounds like a perfectly good question. Then they go on to quote Carey W. King and Michael E. Webber from the University of Texas in Austin who give out dire predictions.
The only problem with this is that Mr. King and Mr. Webber were actually talking about the increased water usage needed for electric cars and plug-in electric vehicles. Greenbang.com quotes these two academics, but leaves out the first sentence, which is “Converting light-duty vehicles from full gasoline power to electric power, by using either hybrid electric vehicles or fully electric power vehicles, is likely to increase demand for water resources.”
Leaving out this first sentence is misleading the reader because this is actually an argument against electric cars and plug-in electric vehicles saying that power plants will need much more water in the future when producing electricity for these types of vehicles. The question about how much water will be needed to support hydrogen cars in the future is a good one and too long of a discussion to post here at the moment.
Taking a quote out of context about electric cars and portraying it as an indictment about hydrogen cars, however, is not a good way to start this discussion. Starting with an accurate quote would be a much better tactic.
Greenbang here.
Hands up – Greenbang completely got the wrong end of the stick on this one and somehow managed to confuse hydrogen with hybrid.
We’ve changed the story to eradicate the boo-boo and make it clear it’s hybrid electric vehicles and not hydrogen we’re talking about. We’ll even throw in that first sentence for good measure.
Greenbang didn’t want to be misleading anyone – it was a daft mix-up on our behalf. We’re actually a big fan of hydrogen cars in general and Arnie’s work in this area in particular.
Greenbang
Thanks for clearing that up and sorry to call you out on this one.
The Union of Concerned Scientists also have something to say about whether or not water vapor from hydrogen cars will contribute to global warming. Here’s a hint. The answer is no.
Critics of hydrogen should know that behind them- in their gas-a-holic vehicle is a tank of fluid where one gallon has the power of several sticks of dynamite.