I will press the Submit button.
On a more serious note, I'm going to predict that this thread will be better named "Naïve Rants" if this sort of stuff keeps up:
EvaFan wrote:There is so much more efficiency to fuel cells that its a joke not to considering the idea that the nation is going green/renewable energy. Why we don't use fuel cells for other things is beyond me as well. It doesn't have to change fast, just start putting some out there and fueling stations will install pumps for them over time, while the newest generation of the cars prices drop so the less well off can afford them over time.
Things
are changing. Haven't you heard of GM's Sequel, the Honda Clarity FCX, Nissan Leaf, REVAi? (No? Then why are you complaining?) You can lease a Clarity in California today, and you can buy the Leaf and REVAi now. The Sequel is a concept, but it does demonstrate some work from GM in this area. (The Volt doesn't count towards any of this, because it's a hybrid.)
Or is your complaint that things aren't happening fast enough? In that case...
...there may be conspiracy theories, but there are also very real engineering challenges to solve that still need attention, and that stuff takes
time and
money. Even just talking about hydrogen fuel cells, which have received great attention recently (and is the variant that I've read up on):
Infrastructure is a huge problem. If you just consider filling stations, there's not many places (in the USA, at least) where you can get hydrogen in a form that's suitable for transport. California has just over a couple dozen stations (according to Wikipedia, 26 as of 2007, with ten more planned but a few decommissioned); South Carolina has plans but, as far as I know, no execution. Building that infrastructure up requires a lot of money and a lot of coordination with automobile makers, land owners, etc.
Large-scale hydrogen production is a problem. The most common method for hydrogen production is oxidation of water with methane; look up methane reformers if you want the reactions. That isn't a way going forward if you want to go for the "green" angle: first off, methane is a prominent greenhouse gas; secondly, the reactions that produce hydrogen also produce carbon monoxide, which has to go somewhere. There's many other hydrogen production methods (see Wikipedia if you want a list) but, as far as I can tell, none of those methods have been successfully implemented on a large scale.
Finally, fossil fuels (and internal combustion engines) have undergone a lot more research when it comes to things like performance tuning, i.e. making engines more efficient. It's this reason -- among others -- that you see 500, 600, 700 (or even higher) horsepower gasoline engines showing up in high-end cars.
There's progress in this area, but nothing that can be done on the same scale just yet.
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