A day after millions of Americans rush to the Post Office to pay their taxes or struggle to push their forms over the Internet onto overloaded IRS servers, the U. S. Senate will hold a briefing on the future of hydrogen technology in this country. Senators Byron Dorgan (D) and Lindsey Graham (R) plus Representative Bob Inglis (R) will spend two hours hearing from industry insiders about the direction we need to go to grow the hydrogen economy.
Representatives from National Renewable Energy Laboratory, General Motors, Schlumberger Carbon Services, Energy and Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota and CARB (California Air Resources Board) will be present to speak about emissions benefits of hydrogen, tax incentives and opportunities to go forward with the 110th Congress.
In June 2007, a similar Senate briefing as held where industry informed the Senators about the hydrogen fueling infrastructure, energy security, climate change, and new markets for hydrogen cars and fuel cell vehicles.
Last week, both Graham and Inglis, who both represent South Carolina, were given honorary memberships into the National Hydrogen Association. This was during the opening of the new South Carolina Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Pavilion in Columbia, SC, which continues the trend of South Carolina being a hotbed of hydrogen research.
The good news is that tomorrow hydrogen advocates in industry will be speaking with bi-partisan hydrogen advocates in Congress about the important issue of moving forward with a national hydrogen-based transportation system. There doesn’t seem to be much of a downside to this, now does there?