September 2008
Dear Watchers
Letterbox - Fuel Cells and Fuel Economy
The Fuel Cell Ripoff
Dear Watchers:
The hydrogen fuel cell lobby has been quiet in print media for some time but raised its ugly voice in the July 20, 2008, Bellingham Herald to the tune of asking for a $55 billion federal subsidy. Although not mentioned in the article, I suppose it might help bail out Ford and General Motors. Of course current prosperous taxpayers like you and me would be happy to pay that!
Surely, oil and gasoline prices are skyrocketing but fuel cells are not the cure. The problem is that while hydrogen in value is one of the most abundant elements in the world, it takes energy to make that hydrogen available to fuel cells.
Moreover, the last I heard was that hydrogen for fuel cells was extracted from natural gas. There are some problems with that, too. Not only is natural gas a fossil fuel in limited supply, there is a loss of energy when one source of energy is converted to another form. Add to that the carbon in natural gas. What do we do with that?
There was only one heartwarming thing about energy in today’s Herald. Senator Patty Murray said she favored solar, wind and thermal as energy sources.
Al Hanners
Bellingham
Person Miles Per Gallon
Dear Watchers:
Given the price of gasoline and with Detroit finally shedding its SUV Disease, we hear much talk about fuel-efficient vehicles, i.e. mpg (miles per gallon). Equally important is another measure, pm/pg (person miles per gallon). Adding one passenger doubles the pm/pg. Our Outback averages about 27 mpg, but when my wife and I travel in it, that’s 54 pm/pg not counting the dog. While waiting for WTA buses, I often tabulate the number of driver-only cars. They normally average about 90 percent. Let’s make that figure go down and the pm/pg go up.
Bob Keller
Bellingham
