In case you missed it, President Obama was in Southern California yesterday, first at the Southern California Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona and then on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank.
While at the electric car center in Pomona, President Obama said it was good to get out of Washington to “recharge your batteries.” In the midst of electric car and plug-in hybrid fans, however, President Obama did mention hydrogen cars as part of the plan going forward. Here is video 1 and video 2 of the President’s speech.
The President also mentioned a plan to put a series of alternative fuel rest stops along the major highways on the West Coast that would refuel hydrogen cars, those that run on biofuels and recharge electric vehicles. This new vision may be a modification of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s vision of the Hydrogen Highway implemented a few years back that now has around 26 operating hydrogen fueling stations throughout California.
The criticism is that these “alternative fuel rest stops” will compete with other locally owned gasoline stations. The positive, however, is that these will enable the owners of these new breeds of alternative fuel vehicles to travel the West Coast without worry of finding appropriate fueling or recharging.
At the beginning of his Presidential campaign, President Obama traded in his Chrysler 300C for a Ford Escape Hybrid in order to appear more green-friendly. Now, if we could get President Obama to make another switch to the Ford Flexible HySeries Edge which is both a plug-in hybrid and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, we would be in business.