Your Tax Dollars Being Wasted
In a report titled, "The Amazing Waste: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Funding," Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) writes, "Despite being expensive, inefficient, and ineffective, hydrogen fuel cell technologies have received more than $1.4 billion in federal funding in the past five years. While other more economical technologies much closer to practical realization exist, Congress continues to put taxpayer dollars toward HFC technologies, even after the Administration proposed more than $100 million in spending cuts for hydrogen fuel cells in the FY10 budget.”
“A hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) is an electrochemical conversion device that produces electricity from hydrogen and oxygen," according to TCS.
TCS points out that HFC technology is “not an effective climate solution," adding that while “(s)upporters tout the virtues of the HFC as a “zero [carbon] emission” technology . . . that is often not the case: deriving pure hydrogen from fossil fuels or biomass produces a significant amount of CO2. Even by producing hydrogen through water electrolysis, the barriers to development make any significant reduction in greenhouse gasses doubtful.”
TCS adds that hydrogen and fuel cell research and development is “wasteful” spending of taxpayer dollars. The Department of Energy cut their funding request by more than $100 million. TCS says, however, that “(u)nfortunately, Congress had different ideas: the House requested $153 million for hydrogen fuel cell research and the Senate requested $190 million. . . Ultimately, the two chambers agreed to appropriate $174 million to the Hydrogen Technology Program, ignoring DOE’s request to cut it to $68 million.” The following graph is from the TCS report, “The AmazingWaste: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Funding.”
