Green Collar Jobs-Hype or Reality?

Now, since no one else is checking this out. I did a little investigation today. Chevrolet has 2 models of Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars! This is at the operations level, not at the twit level in the board room!!..

They are on track for mass production in 2014. Shell as agreed to put refueling stations every 10 miles. Quantum Fuel Cell is supplying the power train.

How's that for American ingenuity. Fuel your car from AIR and Water comes out the exhaust.

Now, since no one else is checking this out. I did a little investigation today. Chevrolet has 2 models of Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars! This is at the operations level, not at the twit level in the board room!!..

They are on track for mass production in 2014. Shell as agreed to put refueling stations every 10 miles.

How's that for American ingenuity. Fuel your car from AIR and Water comes out the exhaust.

As an engineer, let me make a couple of enhancements to your statements.  At the same time, I'm very positive about the impacts of green technologies on our planet and our economy.

That said:

• The hydrogen would not come from air, it would come from water, with the application of a lot of energy to hydrolize it into O2 and H2.  So, hydrogen fuel is NOT free or even pollution-free.
• A friend with NASA experience states that hydrogen is "exceedingly difficult" to handle, even in their labs, and with cost-is-no-object gaskets, valves, piping, and connectors they lose between 15% and 20% of their hydrogen to the air.  And they treat it as a high-grade fire hazard because among other things it burns with an invisible flame so if it lights up you can be on fire too before you know it.

I have always suspected that the car companies, and the Administration, have been big fans of hydrogen fuel because practical application of it is so far out in the future, they can just do nothing today, like build the hybrids that the public seems to want.