Please, let there be video of this!

Actually it wouldn't have plugged into the hydrogen tank and blown up.  The tank is thouroughly grounded and has no receptacle the extension cord would plug into.

But since the Ford CEO said it ("off the record") it'll fly in the mass delusional media.  It's a great way to promote the danger of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel.  Finally the moronic media and the moronic Ford CEO get together with the duuhboy to give our side some favorable press.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

It's going to be pumped into the vehicle gas tank at 3000 psi David!  

Can you imagine an insurance company issuing a liability policy to a gas station where consumers are handling a 3000 psi gas pump hose?  I can't.

Notice they didn't let the chimp anywhere near the hydrogen gas pump.  He is below the average competence of 90% of US true.  But it's that bottom 10% that will blow up every  10th hydrogen gas station.  Remember 30% are still idiotic enough to support him.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Technically it probably wouldn't blow up
It'd probably just shoot a flame out and burn him.

Does anyone on Grist have any respect?

Yes.

I don't want Bush to die, since "President Cheney" would be even worse.

You're really running out of material, aren't you?

Better hope your bosses don't see this, or you might get demoted, and have to go troll the PlanetSave forums instead.

:)

I don't think I've ever read such a funny thing in many a year - if ole Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) was alive he'd be rooting for the plug.  Thanks to you all and thanks, Grist, I'm still hurting from laughing so hard.  It's been a long road but this was worth it.  :) /sammie

Onward through the fog

Actually, hydrogen gas is no more explosive than gasoline (which isn't to say it isn't explosive or extremely dangerous).

Tests have been conducted with the same energy-content of both hydrogen and gasoline which demonstrated thatgasoline actually has slightly more deadly force in an explosion than hydrogen.

This was made clear back in the late 1970's when Billings Energy Corp. of Montana were pushing for hydrogen as a fuel for interntal combusion engines (not to be confused with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles).  They had many working prototypes, and the prez of the company regularly mowed his lawn with a riding mower that he filled with hydrogen gas.  

Their solution was to store the hydrogen gas in certain metals that absorb hydrogen, and which release it when gently heated.

In any case, the publicity of their cause resulted in some good reporting, which documented on video the slighty more deadly power of gasoline (in a closed container) than hydrogen.

Still, hydrogen explosiveness is nothing to sneeze  about!

As seen on the video of the incident, aired on "Count Down", duuhbya did not go for the hydrogen tank with the electric cord.  The Ford CEO did not rescue anyone.

Why did the Ford CEO "exaggerate" the incident?  Because he doesn't support the hydrogen plugin hybrid?  And wanted to create an incident that exposed the impracticality of consumers with the skill level of duuhbya filling up a car with hydrogen?

Or did he actually believe an extension cord could be plugged into a hydrogen tank?  That would mean he knew as much about his own company's product as duuhbya does.

Either way Ford needs a new CEO.  And a new board.  But that has been obvious for decades.

Metal hydride storage for hydrogen is actually a pretty good technology smooth.  But of course batteries are still better than hydrogen fuel cells.  In total efficiency and overall safety.

There is still the huge problem of 3000 psi gas hoses, with "failsafe" triple backed up computer chip safety systems that only let the hydrogen flow when  the fuel nozzle is securely connected to the fuel tank in the car.

A 3000 psi hose with hydrogen coming out of it would whip through the air killing anyone if it hit them in the head.  Then the hydsrogen might explode.

A serial plugin hybrid with a 25 mile range (that takes around 1000 dollars worth of batteries) will plugin safely to any extension cord and the backup generator will run on any liquid fuel from a normal gas station.  It will average 10 times the mileage of a normal car and last for 500,000 miles.  

If all vehicles had this drivetrain oil would last 10 times longer, enough time to develop better batteries that need no backup.

This technology is available to ford, gM, chrysler, toyota, honda, Subaru and every other automaker right now.  And would be even cheaper with mass production.  No dangerous, astronomically expensive, uninsurable  3000 psi gas stations needed.  NASA even has trouble filling up with hydrogen.

Now do you see why I think the ford CEO created this "incident" to discredit plugin hybrids?  10% of present oil consumption in vehicles would be very bad for the oil business.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

Great new word, thanks to our resident poet, Amazing DrX!

Too bad, he does not believe in the spectacular combustion incident ... Pshaw, we were having lots of fun imagining it.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!

Oh how true amzingdrx.  We should do a crash factory conversion program like was done in Ypsilanti Michigan to produce the B-24 Liberator back in WWII. It could be done, with the money saved on the reduced oil consumption eventually funding the whole thing I bet. The older I get the more conspiratorial I become. Combine those plug-in hybrids with solar on every roof [www.solaroneveryroof.com] and you have a true revolution.

Thanks, amazngdrx, for that info.  I totally agree with you on the hybrid-is-better-than hydrogen argument.  In fact, I mentioned the fact that hydrogen is slightly less explosive than gasoline just as a trival comment, and not because I am all that excited about hydrogen fuel cells.

I've always wondered a bit about the hydrogen fuel-cell hype since it first appeared (though I was quite excited by Billings Energy back in late 70's, and the use of hydrogen to replace gasoline in internal combusion engines). Likewise, there have been some good articles in the alternative energy press saying pretty much what you said comparing electric or hybrid vechicles to hydrogen.

As these articles point out, there are just too many steps -- each one causing a major loss of efficiency -- in the hydrogen fuel-cell process to compete with eletric/hybrid technology. It makes it too expensive, too unwieldly compared to the "off-the-shelf" nature of wind and solar generated electricity going straight to batteries or the grid.

What most agree on is that hydrogen is (in some situations) a potential good source of energy storage (usually in stationary -- rather than ambulatory -- situations), but that is about it (at least at our current level of progress).

Actually I can't claim creatorship of "plugin".  But I can claim I discovered the phrase "plugin hybrid fuel cell/turbofan" aircraft engine.  Now let's see if anyone builds one.

The closest so far is the backup generator fuel cell/microturbine that Boeing is working on for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).  

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog