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Effort Appears Aimed at Persuading Congress to Continue Hydrogen Program Funding 



General Motors has continued developing its fuel cell program despite bankruptcy and says the technology, which uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce power for electric cars, is critical to the future of private transportation. GM's 'next generation' fuel cell system is about half the mass, more efficient and less costly than the present system.


By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
  
As Congress gets ready to tear into the Obama Administation's draft budget for fiscal 2011, fans of the hydrogen fuel cell are quietly marshaling forces in an effort to protect the funding they won back last year after then-new Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu cut automotive hydrogen programs funding from his inaugural departmental budget proposal.


Chu, to the dismay of automakers, universities and others who'd invested billions in fuel cell development, announced then that he didn't see much sense in spending federal dollars on   further R&D because battery technology was the energy story of the day and fuel cells were a decade or more away from commercialization.


Congress, listening to howls from the trenches - a rarity, indeed - restored the money and this year Chu's budget includes $137 million for fuel cell research programs. 


But that's almost $50 million less than the House and Senate approved last year and  hydrogen backers must be fearful of a more penurious Congress  - they've been popping up with some regularity in recent weeks after a fairly long silence, to remind us that despite all the hoopla over electric-drive vehicles like the battery-electric Nissan Leaf hatchback and Ford Transit Connect van and the Chevrolet Volt and Fisker Karma extended-range plug-ins, the industry is still working hard on fuel cell cars.


The latest to join the quiet lobbying effort is GM - following events such as Honda's January touting of its solar hydrogen station, Toyota's announcement that it has joined a European consortium aiming to promote fuel cell vehicles, and the unveiling of improved fuel cell powerplants by both Mercedes-Benz, in December, and Hyundai earlier this month.
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Tags: Fuel Cell, General Motors, Hydrogen, Fuel Cell Development, General Motors

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GM Spreads Fuel Cell Message, Says U.S. Needs to Develop Hydrogen Fuel System was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.