The administration of US President George W. Bush has taken its hydrogen-fuel initiative to oil-producing Texas.
In a Feb. 11 dinner speech at a Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference in Houston, Energy Sec. Spencer Abraham urged oil and gas producers to support the hydrogen-based energy vision Bush first described in his state-of-the-union address Jan. 28.
Green benefits, energy independence touted
Abraham described his department's research into hybrid fuels, alternative fuels, lightweight vehicle materials, and clean diesel as "a bridge to a hydrogen future, one radically different from today's carbon-based world."
DOE's work with the auto industry on development of vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells, Abraham said, points to the need for a system to distribute hydrogen comparable to the one in place for distributing oil products.
"We've concluded that unless we work on parallel tracks, developing the vehicle and the infrastructure concurrently instead of consecutively, this process would take 3 decades or longer," he said.
"But with full government backing, helping to coordinate both avenues of research and development simultaneously, we believe that a decision to go forward with commercialization could be made as early as 2015."
DOE funding, Abraham said, focuses on lowering the cost of fuel cells by a factor of 10 and the cost of hydrogen by a factor of 4.
Success of the vehicle research and hydrogen initiative, he said, "will mean surmounting the twin challenges of dependence on foreign oil and harmful emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases."
Saudis applauded
Earlier in his speech Abraham described as "a welcomed step" the decision by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise production quotas in response to disruption of supply from Venezuela.
"In particular, we appreciate Saudi Arabia's efforts to implement a production increase," he said.
