DU: Beware the Hydrogen Economy Lies being pushed by the Fossil Fuel industry.
It's very easy to fall for the lies:
"hydrogen is a clean energy source" (it's not a source and it's neither clean nor green)
From a single OP earlier today, the post contains a great deal of information and it needs to be vetted. I'm selecting two claims to debunk.
First: A graphic that reads "Sphera Hydrogen is Easy to Use". Follow the links to see THIS graphic explaining that it's a Natural Gas and Coal-to-Hydrogen Scheme.
Throw some solar and wind turbines in and Carbon Capture and Sequestration and all of a sudden it's "green" (washed).
Second: The 2013 model of Panasonic's household fuel cell (ENE FARM) is mentioned as if to demonstrate proof of this new clean technology. Well, the problem is that these fuel cells use natural gas as the energy source. They depend 100% on Fossil Fuels.
Household fuel cells have adopted city gas (methane, CH4) as fuel, and steam reforming
as the method to produce hydrogen, so that the existing city gas supply infrastructure can be used.
Since hydrogen is produced in the place where it is used, there is no need to transport or store hydrogen, which is hard to handle.
However, when hydrogen is extracted by steam reforming, carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) are produced, because it is a fossil resource containing carbon that is being reformed.
http://panasonic.co.jp/ap/FC/en_doc02_02.html
Look, I'm as interested in solutions as anyone, but I also spend most of my time studying the energy industry and I have never seen such greenwashing done as is being done right now by the conglomeration of interests struggling to keep a stranglehold on their piece of the energy pie.
Specifically, and with the growth in rooftop solar and battery electric vehicles, the old model of petrol filling stations and high utility bills is beginning to be displaced.
Do you know what would keep us beholden to the current Big Gas and Oil interests?
Hydrogen.
= new reply since forum marked as read
We could have fought them years ago, insisted on keeping streetcars and public transportation and not bought into the promise of unlimited cheap energy.
But we didn't and right now I find myself surrounded by trucks and SUVs bigger than any time in the past and I mean any time.
It's a new era, energy efficient devices, dozens of electric vehicles to choose from, including plug-ins that run for pennies per mile and require very little maintenance.
BUT, we're hearing a lot about how Hydrogen is going to be this magnificent new fuel and change everything.
The whole mess began under George W. Bush and is funded by BP, Chevron, Shell, Airgas, and others, and supported by a number of automobile manufacturers.
Universities and government agencies are interested in the science and, thus, complicit in the program.
Their involvement, sadly, lends an air of legitimacy but this is nothing new.
BUT, we stand at a point in time where we CAN claim some independence from fossil fuels and I'll be damned if I'll let false claims pass as honest.
the ills that come with creating energy sources such as hydrogen. In an earlier thread today it was proposed to pump sea water to the mountain tops and drop it into the Salton Sea. Those who do not understand that systems like this are energy sinks never will understand.
In Bithlo, and Ocala, and in rural counties everywhere people have boasted their magnificent idea of hooking a generator up to an electric car, thus creating the electric they need to drive while driving. Not once has one of them seen the folly, and not once has one of them not thought less of me for trying to explain it. 
I've heard similar ideas: why not put little turbines on electric cars to generate electricity to recharge the batteries?
Lookout for another scheme, especially in California these days: Desalination.
Desal is sold as easy to do, just use solar power.
Well, in fact it won't go that way, they use natural gas and it's really expensive and it's a way to make water but also a way to charge bottled water prices for what comes out of your tap.
Nestle and other global companies have been buying up smaller municipal water utilities over the past several years.
Water is the next oil.
