[PLUG-TALK] Obama's bad plan...

Michael Robinson plug_1 at robinson-west.com
Wed Feb 4 08:31:10 UTC 2009


Obama's stimulus package a bit much anyone?  In a time of economic
hardships and company closures, how can the federal government
spend a trillion dollars???  I'm not against fixing roads, trying
to provide health coverage to the poor, and trying to expand the
use of renewable energy.  Can renewable energy alone, a windmill
everywhere that a windmill makes sense people, solve the nation's
energy problems?  Can we afford to build 0 new nuclear plants?
Can we stop building coal fired power plants?  Are we any closer
to figuring out how to get around without oil today than we
were in 2003?  If we could stop using oil, we could stop importing
it, and effectively we could avoid financing terrorists.  Maybe,
gasp, we could pull out of Afghanistan if we could figure out the
hydrogen economy sooner than later.

Aluminum and water can be used in combination
to liberate hydrogen without applying any electrical power.  
Apparently, there are other possibilities for liberating hydrogen 
as well other than electrolysis.  Seems to me if we can get those
developing
the future hydrogen economy to let go of the notion of compressing
hydrogen gas and liquefying hydrogen, that the hydrogen economy will
materialize sooner than later.  I like Magnesium Hydride slurry but
there is the option of using domestic polonium as well to store vast
amounts of hydrogen on a vehicle.  Magnesium hydride slurry isn't as
good at holding hydrogen as polonium, but it's lighter and it is
pumpable.  An advantage of slurries is that they hold 2 times the 
amount of hydrogen that can be stored by liquefying it without the
tremendous energy hit.  Slurries can be pumped and all you need to
release the hydrogen from them is tap water.  The byproduct can be
pumped as well.

http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/

Back to Obama's plan.  It seems he wants to spend a ton on
infrastructure improvements, but he won't build a network
of hydrogen stations.  Oops!  It's the cost of energy stupid!
If Obama really wants to go green, he should be pushing green
means of producing, distributing, and using hydrogen.  The 
fuel cell is the only kind of battery like system that can 
run on domestically produced fuel the kinds of distances 
that people expect.  Not 40 miles, not 85 miles, 300+ miles.  
Today's gas cars can go about 600 miles on a tank.  The 
mileages that experimental hydrogen cars are getting today 
are low because the automakers are still refusing to get 
away from liquid and compressed gas sources of hydrogen 
even though better options are available.  A little push
and funding from government would help alleviate this 
problem.

I don't like Obama.  I didn't vote for him.  I don't want a
commemerative plate.  He claims to care about green sources
of energy, but I see little to no movement on developing
a hydrogen economy.  Failure to lead on hydrogen means that
we will wait 10+ years instead of say 3 to see hydrogen
vehicles hit the road in significant numbers.  Obama says
he is the environmental president, but can he do anything
significant?  Lithium ION batteries are not the answer,
they are merely a strange detour.  There isn't enough Lithium
in the world.  Unfortunately, there isn't enough platinum
either.




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