Grist | Topics | 42 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 42
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Wired jumps the shark once too often and is eaten alive Technophile mag spouts climate-tech nonsense	Joseph Romm	26 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Wired magazine used to be the place to go for the latest in technology. But now it covers any sexy techy idea, no matter how impractical. Given that we all have limited time, Wired should be off every technophile's must-read list and replaced by Technology Review, which has revamped its stodgy old self and become what once Wired aspired to be. For me, this started with the absurd cover story by Peter Schwartz 5 years ago, 'How Hydrogen Can Save America,' whic ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, climate science, hydrogen (all these topics)

Clarity Begins at Home Honda produces new fuel-cell car		16 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 10:47 AM on 16 Jun 2008 Honda Motor Co.'s hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity rolled off the line Monday and will be leased to high rollers in California. The Clarity -- an update of Honda's original FCX, a handful of which were leased in 2005 -- runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water, and is twice as fuel-efficient as a gas-electric hybrid. Actresses Laura Harris and Jamie Lee Curtis, filmmaker Christopher Guest, and Little ...
Topics: Big Auto, California, cars, celebrity, green living, hydrogen, news, placemaking (all these topics)

A Whole New Kind of Hydroplane Hydrogen-powered plane makes successful flight		03 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 2:20 PM on 03 Apr 2008 A plane powered by hydrogen fuel cells made three successful test flights earlier this year, Boeing officials announced Thursday. The propeller-driven two-seater, carrying passengers, climbed to 3,300 feet on the power of lithium batteries, then cruised at 60 miles per hour for about 20 minutes powered solely by fuel cells. Sounds like they've got the Wright stuff! (Ooh, that was bad e ...
Topics: air travel, energy, hydrogen, news (all these topics)

Highway to Nowhere California's 'hydrogen highway' runs into roadblocks		02 Apr 2008	News
Posted at 10:53 AM on 02 Apr 2008 Despite California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order four years ago that "hundreds of hydrogen fueling stations" be built in the state, nary a station has been built under the program. Depending on whom you ask, the blame for the sputtering "hydrogen highway" lies with: energy companies and utilities, for not stepping forward to take state matching money to bui ...
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, cars, energy, hydrogen, news, placemaking, politics, state politics (all these topics)

This just in: Hydrogen fuel cell cars are still dead Years after everyone else, GM and Toyota execs skeptical about hydrogen cars	Joseph Romm	06 Mar 2008	Gristmill
That Saturday Night Live-esque headline was inspired by a story in The Wall Street Journal yesterday: Top executives from General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. Tuesday expressed doubts about the viability of hydrogen fuel cells for mass-market production in the near term and suggested their companies are now betting that electric cars will prove to be a better way to reduce fuel consumption and cut tailpipe emissions on a large scale. Really? Hydrogen cars o ...
Topics: Big Auto, business, cars, electric vehicles, energy, green living, hydrogen (all these topics)

With Apologies to Billy Joel General Motors unveils hydrogen-powered concept Cadillac		09 Jan 2008	News
Posted at 10:03 AM on 09 Jan 2008 Trading in your Chevy for a Cadillac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ac? You oughta know by now: at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, General Motors unveiled a concept Caddy powered by a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and battery power. Following the rule that all green car technology must have an insipid name, the new Cadillac Provoq (sigh) is designed to travel some 300 mil ...
Topics: Big Auto, cars, hydrogen, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Dream of hydrogen car goes down in flames Full-cell company bought by Daimler and Ford	Joseph Romm	21 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Ballard -- the Canadian fuel-cell company that once hoped to be the 'Intel Inside of the hydrogen car revolution -- has sold off its automotive fuel-cell business to Daimler and Ford. You can listen to a good CBC radio story on it, which includes an interview of me (click on 'Listen to the Current,' Part 2). You can read Toronto Star columnist Tyler Hamilton on the story here. A Financial Post post piece headlines the story bluntly: 'Hydrogen highway hits dead end: B ...
Topics: business, cars, energy, hydrogen, scientific research, tech (all these topics)

Stupid idea, on so many levels Expensive coal + hydrogen = ?	Sean Casten	14 Nov 2007	Gristmill
As follow-up to my post yesterday: There is now a bidding war emerging for the FutureGen clean coal plant, targeted to cost $6500/kW. Texas and Illinois are fighting to win this fantastic prize. If they get it, they'll ensure they can keep burning coal, but will do it in a plant that is absurdly expensive. As a fringe benefit, they'll generate hydrogen (aka, a fuel that no one is presently demanding for their vehicles), on the off chance that if a market arises they c ...
Topics: hydrogen, Illinois, coal, energy (all these topics)

'Mideast Oil Forever?': Part III Abandoning the solution	Joseph Romm	04 Nov 2007	Gristmill
After the introduction and an explanation of 'The Coming Oil Crisis,' the next part of 'MidEast Oil Forever?' (subs. req'd) begins the discussion of the technology-based solution -- and how the Congress is working to block it. Yes, long before Shellenberger & Nordhaus claim to have pioneered the positive technology message that everyone else supposedly never tried, many of us were waging a public death-match (without their help) to save those technologies -- espe ...
Topics: biofuels, cars, energy, fuel efficiency, hydrogen, oil (all these topics)

The big bet Your chance to get in on the hydrogen action	Joseph Romm	22 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Treehugger reports on a public bet I have made with Greg Blencoe, CEO of Hydrogen Discoveries: Greg Blencoe wins if hydrogen fuel cell vehicles hit 1% of new sales of the typically-defined car and light truck market in the U.S. during 2015 or any year before. Joseph Romm wins if it is 2016 or any year after. At stake is $1000, plus a certain amount of pride (if I lose, I must be photographed wearing a t-shirt saying 'I was wrong about hydrogen.') I am certainly p ...
Topics: hydrogen, energy, cars (all these topics)

Letter from Tom Gage Consumer Reports hypes hydrogen cars	Joseph Romm	04 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Consumer Reports has a fluff piece on hydrogen fuel cell cars in its latest issue (subs. req'd). I spend way too much time debunking this most consumer unfriendly of alternative fuel vehicles -- I even wrote a book on the subject, The Hype About Hydrogen. So I was happy to get an email from Tom Gage, President and CEO of AC Propulsion, containing a letter he sent to the magazine. I asked him if I could run it, and he not only said yes, he expanded it: Dear Editor, ...
Topics: cars, energy, fuel efficiency, hydrogen (all these topics)

The emerging age of hydrogen energy A guest essay from Geoffrey Holland	David Roberts	12 Jul 2007	Gristmill
This is a guest essay by Geoffrey Holland, co-author (with James Provenzano) of The Hydrogen Age: Empowering a Clean Energy Future, which will be out in the fall. I know there are many hydrogen skeptics in the audience, so remember: keep it civil and substantive. ----- Of the vexing challenges humanity faces -- and there are many -- the most imminent is around energy. Beyond food, water, and shelter, anything more than basic survival requires a serious dose o ...
Topics: energy, hydrogen (all these topics)

Really short book review: Monbiot's Heat Skip it	Joseph Romm	06 Jun 2007	Gristmill
You can skip George Monbiot's book Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning. Slightly longer book review: Because there are far too many climate books to read, I confess I apply a litmus test. I look up "hydrogen" in the index. If the writer thinks it's a climate solution, the book can be skipped. I thought I would like this book, since I like many of the columns by the British author, including an early excerpt on the connection of the global war ...
Topics: books, energy, green living, hydrogen, politics (all these topics)

Not-so-easy listenin' A couple of podcasts for your commuting pleasure	Daniel Bachhuber	05 Jun 2007	Gristmill
I've run across these shows in the past couple days, and thought fellow Gristmill readers might like to hear them too. The first is Science Friday's 'Hour One' from last week. There is a segment on carbon sequestration, which I have yet to form an opinion on, and also one on generating hydrogen. The second, which I'm actually listening to as we speak, is about the economic benefits of 'going green.' Apparently being environmentally conscious is a smart business move ...
Topics: business, carbon sequestration, green living, hydrogen (all these topics)

Powering cars with hydrogen? A new idea for how to transport the stuff in cars	Andrew Dessler	04 Jun 2007	Gristmill
I have never been a fan of hydrogen technology as a solution to the climate change problem. It would be great if we could power automobiles with hydrogen (generated, of course, with renewable energy), but how do you carry the hydrogen around in your car? Do you really want to be driving around on top of a tank full of compressed hydrogen? Can you say Hindenburg? I just listened to a great segment on this week's Science Friday. The guest, Jerry Woodall, a professor at ...
Topics: cars, energy, hydrogen, placemaking (all these topics)

Hy-Wire hydrogen car	David Roberts	02 Jun 2007	Gristmill
BBC takes a closer look at the Hy-Wire, GM's hydrogen fuel cell car. According to the incredulous host, it's 'the future.
Topics: cars, hydrogen, placemaking (all these topics)

'Environmental pragmatist' in The New York Times All about hydrogen	Joseph Romm	21 May 2007	Gristmill
Probably half the media queries I get concern hydrogen -- thanks to my last book, The Hype about Hydrogen. Yesterday's New York Times Magazine had an exceedingly long article, 'The Zero-Energy Solution,' on a solar-hydrogen home. The author refers to me as 'an environmental pragmatist,' no doubt because I don't automatically embrace every environmental solution that comes along, but judge each on its technical and practical merit. I have written a number of arti ...
Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, energy, hydrogen, shameless self-promotion (all these topics)

Bush (almost) blows Our prez nearly made a slip of the plug	Yolanda Crous	09 Apr 2007	Gristmill
The funniest news lede I've read in a long time: Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation. Apparently, our befuddled prez was about to stick an electrical plug into the hydrogen tank of a Ford hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid. This act, if completed, would have generated Hindenburg-esque bad publicity and probably made Cheney our next president. (Eep!) To make the save, Mulally apparently 'violated all th ...
Topics: cars, George Bush, gossip, hydrogen, politics (all these topics)

H2CAR follow-up Seems like a dead end	John McGrath	27 Mar 2007	Gristmill
Last week, Erik Hoffner posted about H2CAR, a process developed at Purdue University that would allegedly dramatically improve the productivity of coal or biomass gasification by adding hydrogen to the mix. I was intrigued by the idea, and read the article. Unfortunately, I think this is a dead end.No beating around the bush -- the killer aspect of the plan is the huge amounts of hydrogen that would be created. The smallest amount cited by the paper is approximately ...
Topics: cars, energy, green living, hydrogen (all these topics)

Extracting useful energy from a fusion reaction Small is beautiful.	biodiversivist	01 Feb 2007	Gristmill
Here is a fun article from The Green Wombat retelling the 'solar-to-hydrogen' car story for the millionth time. I read stories like this in Popular Mechanics decades ago. The article talks about using solar panels to store sunlight as hydrogen to burn in internal-combustion-powered cars. Australia has a lot of sunlight and summers can be hot. It would be far more efficient to use that sunlight to power swamp coolers to air-condition homes than to throw 90% of that sol ...
Topics: consumerism, energy efficiency, hydrogen, renewable energy, Seattle (all these topics)

Terry Tamminen: Hydrogen, batteries, and electric cars We will wonk you	David Roberts	11 Jan 2007	Gristmill
DR: You're a big supporter of hydrogen, which is a storage medium for electrical energy. Moving our transportation infrastructure to hydrogen means offloading the power burden from oil and liquid fuels to electricity sources -- predominantly natural gas and coal. How is that an environmental gain, to go from oil to coal? TT: It isn't, but that's a false choice. There are lots of other ways we get hydrogen that are a lot more efficient, cheaper, and more env ...
Topics: cars, electric vehicles, hydrogen, interview, Terry Tamminen (all these topics)

Taking the long way home: What's wrong with the hydrogen path Warning: techno-engineering speak ahead	Gar Lipow	24 Dec 2006	Gristmill
Amory Lovins is rightfully admired by environmentalists. But nobody is right all the time, and the hydrogen path is one of his few mistakes. He summarizes his argument for hydrogen in Twenty Hydrogen Myths (PDF). More extensive discussion is embedded in his book Winning the Oil Endgame (book-length PDF). His basic proposal: Since most gas stations already have access to natural gas, put natural gas reformers in enough stations to make sure everyone has access to ...
Topics: Amory Lovins, cars, energy, hydrogen, placemaking (all these topics)

Sometimes, big is beautiful Let's not fetishize size	Gar Lipow	22 Dec 2006	Gristmill
Many environmentalists are reverse size queens -- 'small is beautiful.' When Schumacher wrote the book of that title, he was responding to a real tendency to ignore diseconomies of scale -- a tendency that still exists. Up to a certain point, both organizations and physical plants produce more output for each unit of input as they grown in size. Past that point, costs of gigantism kick in, and efficiency begins to fall instead of rising. But Schumacher assumed that ...
Topics: Amory Lovins, energy, hydrogen (all these topics)

Hydrogen Hopes BMW to put a few hydrogen cars on the road next year		13 Sep 2006	Daily Grist
Hydrogen Hopes BMW to put a few hydrogen cars on the road next year The cars of the future are here! Sorta. BMW announced yesterday that it will distribute about 100 hydrogen-powered 7-Series sedans to select drivers in the U.S. and E.U. in early 2007. The cars, which can travel about 125 miles before switching to gasoline, maintain BMW's sporty image: they go from zero to 62 in 9.5 seconds, with a top speed of 143 mph. The 7-S ...
Topics: hydrogen, news, placemaking (all these topics)

Hydrogen Fidelity Bush stumps for hydrogen on Earth Day		24 Apr 2006	Daily Grist
Hydrogen Fidelity Bush stumps for hydrogen on Earth Day For Earth Day, President Bush visited a California hydrogen fuel-cell project, decrying the danger posed to the planet by ... high gas prices. Predicting a "tough summer" and calling the scourge at the pump "a serious problem we've got to do something about," he pledged immediate action. And by immediate action, he meant immediately talking about running ...
Topics: California, hydrogen, news (all these topics)

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