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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, proving once again that he never met a photo-op he didn't like, tooled up to the brand new BP station just down the road from LAX and topped off his Hummer's tank the other day.
Ho-hum, just another day in the life of our action-star-turned-girlie man-exterminating head of state, right?
Not really. This fill-up cost a cool $10 a gallon, and the Hummer in question was a custom-built hydrogen-powered SUV of the future. The Governor was on hand to promote the California Hydrogen Highway, his plan to build a network of hydrogen filling stations across the Golden State.
Sounds great! We'll just whip on down to the BP in our new hydrogen powered car (as soon as they're invented), plop down $10 a gallon (hell, we're almost halfway there, anyhow), and cruise on down to Santa Monica on a tank of clean-burning hydrogen (that can only be produced by using our old friend Mr. Fossil Fuel).
Don't get us wrong, we applaud the Governor's effort to do something, anything about the whole tangled morass of air pollution, our dependence on foreign oil, and the coming peak of oil production.
Pretty clearly, action is needed. But maybe the money that would be spent on the Hydrogen Highway would be better spent encouraging people to conserve energy by driving less, on tax breaks to encourage the purchase of more fuel-efficient cars, and on public transit improvements.
When hydrogen truly becomes a viable alternative, sign us up. If it pans out, it would truly change things for the better.
Plus, it's just plain futuristic and cool.
