BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Why indeed! At one time America led the world in textiles. Go to a Salvation Army thrift store that has section for higher end clothing and check out the quality of the fabrics made in America during the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Abundant, clean power is the foundation upon which an American industrial comeback will be built.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

I agree whole heartedly

TiredOne

The technology for a hydrogen economy is already here, we mostly need the infrastructure to distribute it.

In Europe, where they are far ahead of us in creating this distribution infrastructure, they inject hydrogen into the natural gas pipelines. Up to a 15% concentration can be burned with no other changes.

We also need to find better means to produce hydrogen, since today we make it primarily from petroleum, ironically.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

There were a couple of articles recently in Science Daily. In one, scientists were able to produce hydrogen using bacteria and in the other they used a catalyst, platinum. The second has been around for a while but has used too much platinum to make it cost effective. They've discovered a way to use much less. I forget the details. I'll have to take another look.

TiredOne

BigMike,

Platinum is used in a type of fuel cell called a PEM fuel cell. They have made a good bit of progress in reducing the amount required. Perhaps more importantly, a lot of work is being done to find other, less expensive catalysts to replace Platinum. Graphene is one such new development and holds much promise in many different areas.

A lot of work is indeed being done with organic means to extract hydrogen from water. You can even make a fairly simple system using plastic bags with water and algae, assuming you aren't in a freezing environment.

Hydrogen is easily in our reach if we could find a way beyond the senseless bickering over nonsense to keep us distracted from the things that need to be done, we could get this thing done!

We are at the point where all that is really needed is to simply make the commitment to invest in the necessary infrastructure.

This is the sort of national construction project that could put many to work for years. A far more beneficial project than the Keystone pipeline, that benefits only a very few while posing serious risk to a huge number of us.

When so called "conservatives" get over their deficit boogeyman approach and admit that our best bet at ending deficit spending is to grow our way out, and a large investment in our national infrastructure, including a hydrogen distribution network, is the sort of thing to kick start a long term recovery.

TiredOne

Double post

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

I'm with you tiered one Better days are coming. The ''conservatives" will see the money in hydrogen and change their position once again has they have so many times and finally we will see something. My prediction it will come during the term of the next republican president with a republican legislature. Thats bound to happen too. Politics seems to work that way. Right now we have teams but no teamwork.The way forward begins with us.Lets hope for good things in 2014 and maybe we will come up with a congress that works and a new developed energy source.

Artemis

Great post Bigmike, we do need to get ahead of the curve when it comes to our future, we need to be more competitive and energy progressive, the more self sufficient we are the better.
It is hard to move forward when there are forces that block our advancements, how to get out from under their thumb is the question.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Vote no matter what or who just vote and vote with your conscience.

TiredOne

It's time for us to show leadership. We need to let our elected officials know in a clear, yet respectful manner, that we are tired of the nonsense. That we expect them to start acting like adults and quit the senseless bickering over one manufactured crisis after another. .

We are at a critical time in our history. The world has never been as competitive. If we hope to regain the leadership position we grew up with, we have to find a way to get people to stop the posturing, and start working together to make this the Country we grew up loving and being proud of.

The endless attacks against our own people is killing any chance we have of winning this race for our very survival.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

The $768 billion to bail out the banks would have gone a long way to benefitting everyone. If they're gonna print bogus money no matter what, they might as well print it for something worthwhile, eh! The fundamental rule of economic success is to make more than you spend. We've been doing this bass ackwards for a while now and that is what has the consevatives in a tizzy, and rightly so. Hydrogen, fusion and infrastructure are money makers, though, and have the potential to return far more than the initial investment.

Geo

Renewable energy 4/30/19

The US is coming up on a big milestone in energy. For the first time, the renewable energy sector -- that includes hydro, wind and solar power -- is generating more electricity than coal. It's happening this month (which ends today), according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, and it might happen again in May, too. There are two reasons for this: Investments have made renewable energy technologies cheaper, and there's more demand for cleaner energy because of concerns about climate change.