U.S. shifting from gasoline to hydrogen to boost mileage
The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a plan crafted by the Energy Department and the auto industry to develop hydrogen-based fuel cells to power the cars of the future, administration and industry officials said Tuesday.
The new effort, to be announced in Detroit today by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, is intended to hasten the replacement of the internal combustion engine. Fuel cells use stored hydrogen and oxygen from the air to create electricity, and the only emission from engines they power is water vapor.
In backing the plan, the Bush administration is walking away from a $1.5 billion, eight-year project to develop high-mileage gasoline-fueled vehicles.
Environmentalists and energy experts favor the fuel cell research. But critics said that the new program, like its predecessor, would let Washington and Detroit focus on vague, long-term aims while avoiding the task of improving the mileage of cars and sport utility vehicles in the short term. Experts say that commercial production of cars with fuel-cell engines is 10 to 20 years away.
With hearings scheduled in the Senate next month on a Democratic alternative to President Bush's energy program, it has been unclear how either party would address fuel economy standards, which are unpopular with automakers and organized labor.
On Tuesday, an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the Transportation Department will offer a proposal this year on tightening those standards. But he added that since any changes would be years away, the fuel-cell project could make them "a non-issue."
The original program, begun in 1993, aimed to develop affordable cars that got 80 miles to a gallon of gasoline. Vice President Al Gore, its most vocal backer in the Clinton administration, likened the project, known as the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, to the Apollo program in its urgency and technological complexity.
In addition to about $1.5 billion in government subsidies, the Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler -- together spent about $1 billion a year on related technologies.
The automakers developed prototype vehicles that got at least 70 miles a gallon. The project made advances in aerodynamics and composite materials. But none of the Big Three came close to commercial production of an 80-mile-a-gallon car.
Meanwhile, the average fuel economy of vehicles for sale in the United States has dropped, so that this year's fleet gets the worst gas mileage in 21 years, according to the government.
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