A few miles northwest of Chicago, in Des Plaines, the first hydrogen fueling station in Illinois will open today. Republican Congressman Peter J. Roskam will unveil the station and fill up one of General Motors’ hydrogen powered vehicles, the GM HydroGen3.
The new hydrogen fueling station is located at the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) at 1700 S. Mount Prospect Road. The station will be publicly accessible and credit card holders may fuel up their hydrogen cars for the current price of $3.49 per gallon equivalent (which equals one kilogram). The GM HydroGen3 is easy on gas, too as it gets 60 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent).
According to the National Hydrogen Association, the Des Plaines filling station will be the 64th hydrogen fueling station in the U. S. There are also currently 9 hydrogen fueling stations that have been built in Canada as well.
Raised as an Illinois boy myself, this is exciting news for the Land of Lincoln as a couple more hydrogen fueling stations are planned for northern Illinois over the next two years. Just this week in Southern California, I paid $3.59 per gallon to fill my car up on gasoline, so for the naysayers who have been saying that hydrogen is too expensive, this is just one more argument that has gone swirling cleanly down the drain.