Letters - Letter to the Editor

Automotive Industries, April, 2002

CAFE, Hydrogen and Utopia

Your February editorial, "Freedom from CAFE" was very bold and right on. You don't see a line of trucks and SUVs at the filling stations in Europe. As for your statements about fuel cells being the "Ultimate Game Changer," I don't get the breakthrough effects, other than cleaner tailpipe emissions! Where does everybody think that hydrogen comes from? Last I heard, they weren't sinking any hydrogen wells. It has to be made -- from petroleum, natural gas, coal, bio-mass, or maybe even nuclear-powered hydrolysis.

The energy demands are reduced somewhat, due to somewhat better overall Efficiencies. But what else in the equation changes?

Scott T. Wood

Re: The Hydrogen Economy: In the days of "producer gas," water was broken down into its constituents using heat from coke, and the hydrogen (with some CO) sent to the cooking stoves. The only clean energy to do the job today is nuclear power which, unlike coal, can supply us with both the hydrogen and oxygen for our fuel cells.

This dream, however, is made illusive by our politicians and the so-called "environmentalists" who vie with media reporters for the title of being the most technically ignorant, and would rather we choked on products of combustion.

Your allusion that our wars in the oil producing region are to insure our oil supply is erroneous. The oil producing nations depend entirely on oil for their livelihood: the oil will go to the market, where we buy it, regardless of which faction owns it. A case in point is our war with Iraq. Not only did we spend our wealth and lives to defend a country which is much richer per capita than we, but we stopped Iraq from shipping oil which, of course, made less oil, not more, available in the market.

The wars in the Middle East are purely political. They are the cause of the terrorist attacks, and may eventually change this country to emulate Israel, a nation which never knows where the next attack will come from.

Leon. J. Kaliniec

Senior Project Engineer

Spectral Development Co.

America must drastically reduce oil consumption to survive! We must look beyond Utopian dreams of hybrids, fuel cells and even fish carburetors; we must change our way of life! The versatile automobile has allowed us to live and learn and shop in far away places, but this is not necessary since the Internet, Ebay and educational TV are here. Distance is no longer the problem.

My dream is that each local school becomes a small communication and supply center that we could walk to when required (for milk, computer repair, etc.) Forget the second car -- who needs it? Forget the two- and three-car garage, of course. Get the latest gossip at your local "village/school center." Live Locally! Sell your old SUV while you can.

Phil Pauley

Sacramento, Calif.

I hope that the American public will finally understand that the new program dubbed FreedomCar is a scam to get more of the taxpayers' money, and do nothing to improve the situation immediately.

The only way to cut pollution right now and accelerate the establishment of the Hydrogen society is to get rid of heavy and inefficient cars and introduce the ultralight vehicles. Lengthy arguments about safety are only scare mongering to maintain the status-quo in CAFE standards, or get rid of it altogether. There is no proof that simultaneously lowering weight of the fleet of the vehicles will increase fatalities.

The CAFE will not (and should not) be scrapped. The much more stringent CAFE standards are needed, much more than proposed, to get rid of big SUVs and pickup trucks which are being promoted for wrong usage (mainly city driving). Itjust doesn't make sense!

Mark Kmicikiewicz

CKE Technologies Inc.

As an alternative fuel, "bio-diesel" is derived from canola, soy, corn, sunflower, etc. Its emissions can be considered "zero" when the plants recycle the [CO.sub.2] and water vapor. The absence of Sulphur allows catalytic converters to be used for CO/NOx control.

Perhaps best of all, the existing distribution infrastructure can be used for bio-diesel. I've been using it for nearly a year now. It's a well developed technology that will be cost competitive as soon as diesel fuel prices exceed approximately $1.70/gallon. We may eventually change completely to hydrogen, but bio-fuels seem likely to be a major part of the transition.

Are any U.S. major automakers doing any development work with biofuels? I've only heard about European work being done.

John Ousterhout

General Dynamics Corp.

I agree that it would be nice to have energy independence. But I think the difficulties of establishing a hydrogen infrastructure and the safety thereof are being seriously underestimated. Also, where will the hydrogen come from, and what are the energy requirements to obtain and transport it?

The simplest way to reduce our use of oil, especially imported, is to legislate a gasoline tax which increases by $0.25/year until the consumption is reduced sufficiently. This will allow people adequate time to change their driving habits and/or vehicle choice. If the money from this were applied to mass transit in the cities, it would also provide another transportation choice for commuters. To see the validity of this approach, just look at Europe.