http://www.nbc4.tv/politics/2501169/detail.html

i came across this article, and it seems great. Arnie's leading by example. In Britain, John Prescott, a politician, is (in)famous for his "two jags" being used at an envirnonmental meeting. I think it's great that someone who wishes to introduce eco-friendly fuels is making the start by doing it to their gas-guzzler. OK, Arnie may have a few hummers, and he's not the guy who you'd think of as being eco-friendly, but this is a great start.

1- I don't think Hydrogen is a real solution.
(see one of the gas prices threads for that)

2- by saying there is a solution in the future, manufacturers are avoiding the problems we have now.

They're avoiding new technologies because car companies won't make as much from the oil industries if they impliment non-petroleum engines. It's all about that dollar.

Hydrogen isn't a great thing to use, but it isn't oil burning, which is great to me. I'm surprised though, that he's using hydrogen--he seems like such a right-wing republican rich guy, I'm surprised that he's even thought about renewable energies.

On another note: You can use a deisel engine and add a heater to it to make it run on used grease from fast food chains. The feul is free and clean burning. The next time I get a car, that's what I'm doing.

I guess its cool but when I saw this I thought it was just a publicity stunt. Arnie was the one who turned a military hummer to a recreational vehicle in the first place back in the early 90's I believe it was. Not exactly a great trend he has started...

Hydrogen isn't a great thing to use, but it isn't oil burning, which is great to me.

Where does the Hydrogen come from?

I bet it is separated (out of water?) with (electric) energy that is made with.......

when I saw this I thought it was just a publicity stunt.

this is what i believe too. a publicity stunt to try to seperate him from the other candidates and nothing more.

Where does the Hydrogen come from?

I bet it is separated (out of water?) with (electric) energy that is made with.......

.......virtually any energy source: oil, natural gas, coal, wind, hydro, solar, etc.

I have no problem if it's a publicity stunt. Most politicians do little else than publicity stunts. What counts is that the population in CA is very much concerned about the environment, and in order to be elected, a candidate must demonstrate a strong commitment to environmental issues, and also to follow through on them.

It's democracy at work. Politicians doing what the people want. People care about the environment -> politicians care about the environment. :)

It's democracy at work. Politicians doing what the people want. People care about the environment -> politicians care about the environment. :)


You're kidding, right? :confused:

oat.. if you believe that arnold is going to follow through on this, you've got to be kidding. i call it a publicity stunt not because he might be pretending to care but because the idea is absolutely absurd. he's garnering attention and has no means to follow through with such a hollow promise.

from http://gristmagazine.com/muck/muck092403.asp

"By the end of this decade we will have hundreds of thousands of cars driving with hydrogen fuel rather than fossil fuel," announced none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger last Sunday. No, this was not a speech in a science-fiction movie, but it might as well have been one: As yet, there are only a few dozen fuel-cell test vehicles on the roads, and it will take several years at least to get the first models into production. In a thrilling but unrealistic PR stunt at a gubernatorial campaign appearance just outside of Los Angeles, the Terminator star promised to create a public-private partnership to build hydrogen fueling stations for fuel-cell cars every 20 miles along major interstate highways in California by 2010 -- a bold vision, to be sure, but a project that would be so staggeringly elaborate and expensive to execute that it can only be called preposterous.

"You would need superheroes, a prop department, and Hollywood's best special effects to pull off what he wants to do by 2010," said Joel Makower, cofounder of the clean-energy consultancy Clean Edge, Inc. "There are no credible experts in this field that would endorse a plan like this. It's as though somebody said to Arnold: 'If you could create a sci-fi energy world in which you were the star, what would it look like?' And he and his scriptwriters whipped this one up."

In a way, it's charming that Schwarzenegger has this ecotopian fantasy, but just as with Bush's fuel-cell proposal, some energy experts smell a red herring: Both plans overlook the urgent, short-term need to put fuel-efficient cars on the road today and fail to address the importance of finding clean ways of producing hydrogen. (Schwarzenegger's proposal would presumably derive hydrogen from natural gas, since that is the only technology that's readily available today.)

What inflates the absurdity of Schwarzenegger's plan was his promise to retrofit his own gas-guzzling Hummer with a fuel-cell engine. That vision completely misses a basic rule of fuel-cell vehicles, one obvious to anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the technology: Fuel-cell cars need to be light and aerodynamic (i.e., not a tank), requiring the minimal amount of power -- and the minimal size fuel cell -- to propel them. "It would probably take a fuel cell the size of a VW Beetle to fully power that thing," says Makower.

Well, I didn't say that Arnold is the best person ever for the environment, but he is my first choice in this election. After seeing the debate with all major candidates, I am happy that the Green party nominee won't get elected. That guy is a lunatic at best, and a communist at worst. I disagreed with him on pretty much every issue. And Davis is the most corrupt politician I've ever seen in the West (well at least he's open about it). Too bad. :-/

I believe I remember seeing something on tv about GM investing 1 billion dollars towards H-cell technology. I thought that was a promising figure indicating a definate intent to soon ( I'd hope ) be mass producing such cars.

rigmarole

hmm a billion dollars isn't much if you consider that development of a "normal" car is several hundred millions.