A New Manhattan Project

I dunno about you folks, but the next time I hear a President talk about a new Energy Policy I'm gonna puke. Bush did it the other night and it was empty rhetoric. Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, Carter, and Ford all had these wonderful "energy policies" that - mostly - didn't amount to crap.

There are all sorts of alternatives out there that have evolved beyond theory into engineering exercises. And there they remain except for some hybrid models which really don't solve anything and the poisons put into the environment to manufacture the batteries for hybrids actually exceed the crap a pure IC engine would in it's lifetime.

I'm a big fan of hydrogen-based combustion and I have been since I read an article about it in Analog magazine in 1975. It's actually possible to manufacture a hydrogen based engine that's safe and has the same (or better) torque and horsepower as a gas engine. But, for some reason, the automakers have judged this to be "expensive prototypes" and won't commit to consumer models for at least 10 years.

I'm no tree-hugger or a subscriber to manmade global warming, but, goddamn, the technology exists to create cars that burn cheap hydrogen and produce as a waste product water. Why is this not being pursued aggressively???

I think the government has an obligation to tackle this single-mindedly as a national security issue (foreign dependence on oil will get us eventually). Since the problem is naught but engineering, put those freaking engineers into a think-tank with a few billion dollars and solve the problem! Then make the patents public domain and give tax incentives to manufacturers who produce hydrogen based vehicles.

This issue pisses me off tremendously. We have a simple way to clean, safe, independent transport. For God's sake, let's DO IT.