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Bush visit may fuel automotive switch(Sacramento Bee, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 22--President Bush is an unlikely pitchman for petroleum-free cars. Critics have accused the former Texas oilman of going to war to protect U.S. access to Middle Eastern crude and of giving the oil industry a heavy hand in drafting the nation's energy policy. But this afternoon, in West Sacramento, the president plans to sing Earth Day praises for an automotive technology that promises to wean motorists off gasoline entirely while cleaning the environment. Showcased on an industrial strip fronting Interstate 80, the $1 million-plus "fuel cell" prototypes look much like today's autos but operate electronically. Drivers fill 'er up with hydrogen. An electronic motor powers the wheels. And the tailpipe spews only wisps of water vapor. The president's visit to the California Fuel Cell Partnership demonstration facility is part of a three-day swing through the state and the latest of several stops around the country to tout alternative fuels for cars and homes. Bush embarked on the clean energy circuit after declaring in this year's State of the Union address that "America is addicted to oil." He proposed a 22 percent increase in research on powering homes and workplaces with nonpolluting generators, including nuclear plants, and renewed his call for better hybrid cars and pollution-free autos that run on hydrogen. California hosts much of the nation's clean-energy research and development, pioneers incentives for greater fuel economy and has the largest number of vehicles of any state - with the smog to show for it. The fuel cell partnership, a consortium of 31 energy companies, car manufacturers and government agencies promoting the technology, is but one of the activities that makes metropolitan Sacramento a mecca in this arena. UC Davis officials say they have more faculty and students studying the technology than any other university. In Sacramento, the California Energy Commission and Air Resources Board is planning a "hydrogen way," or network of stations to fuel the cars of the future, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed. And the governor has his own road show, recently having converted his gas-guzzling Hummer to run on hydrogen. Bush's West Sacramento stop today, however brief, no doubt will add momentum if not research dollars to the fuel cell campaign. "He'll do us a favor by calling people's attention to the fact that we are going to have to move a new fuel," said James Boyd, a member of the Energy Commission's board of directors. Some clean-energy advocacy groups, however, said Bush's energy policy invests in solutions decades away and does little to achieve more immediate gains. Today, automakers have placed no more than 300 of these mostly hand-crafted, experimental vehicles on the road worldwide, for testing and promotion, according to Ballard Power System, a fuel cell manufacturer that has equipped about half of the demonstration vehicles. Under the most optimistic industry projections, hydrogen-powered vehicles would be available at a price consumers can swallow no earlier than 2010. By then, the fuel-cell fleet is expected to number no more than 2,000 in California, said Joan Ogden, a UC Davis professor of environmental science and policy. If all goes as planned, Schwarzenegger's hydrogen highway would have about 50 hydrogen fueling stations, mostly in urban areas such as Sacramento, Ogden said. To go much beyond those numbers, automakers will have to overcome several technological and psychological barriers. One of the major challenges is reducing the size of the tank for storing enough pressurized hydrogen to drive more than 300 miles. And, like the battery-powered cars that emerged in the mid-1990s, the biggest challenge for fuel cells in the next decade will be weaning the public from the internal combustion engine, industry experts said. Another big problem is cost. Fuel cells are expensive to make and contain precious metals. The technology works by pumping compressed hydrogen and oxygen into opposite ends of the fuel cell: a tiny sandwich of perforated nickel plates, or electrodes, coated with platinum. When hydrogen meets platinum it breaks into electrically charged particles. The movement of the negatively charged particles - electrons - generates the electricity that powers the motor. The oxygen combines with hydrogen to produce water vapor, which is emitted from the tailpipe along with just heat. There are no cancer-causing chemicals, no gases that smudge the skies or sear the lungs. All that sounds great environmentally. As far as fuel economy goes, these vehicles would be more efficient than the best of today's hybrid autos, which are powered by gasoline and batteries. But environmental benefits and fuel savings alone won't create enough demand for automakers to produce fuel cell vehicles in large enough numbers to make a big impact anytime soon, said Anthony Eggert, associate research director at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. "It will be 20 years or more before we see significant percentages of these vehicles on the road, to where they have an impact on reducing fuel mileage and global warming gases," Eggert said. In fact, some environmentalists scoff at Bush's decision to tour the fuel cell center in West Sacramento because he has done little to reap more immediate gains. For example, the $150 million the Bush administration has proposed for research into biofuels such as corn-produced ethanol is $350 million a year less than the amount Congress authorized last year, said Nathanael Greene, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City. At the heart of Bush's policy on vehicle transportation - which makes up 70 percent of U.S. oil consumption - is research on better batteries, ethanol production that doesn't rely solely on corn, and, of course, hydrogen fuel cells. He also has offered consumers tax incentives to buy "green" cars, and has given fuel providers breaks to add clean fuel pumps to their stations. The Bush administration tightened the average fuel economy standards for light trucks earlier this year, including gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles for the first time. But he let off the hook one of America's most profitable markets - pickup trucks. And the remaining fuel savings were criticized by environmentalists and others as paltry compared to what might have been technologically feasible. To power buildings, Bush has pushed for breakthroughs in clean coal, solar and wind energy, and nuclear advancements. But his administration has yet to propose any regulations that would tighten appliance or equipment energy standards, according to Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C. By contrast, Nadel said, "The California Energy Commission has issued two dozen of these standards since Bush has come into office." ------------ Related graphic How fuel cell technology works |