Department of Energy
Washington, DC 20585 April 12, 2006
Mr. Bill Garrett President, Cleanpeace.org
Dear Mr. Garrett:
Thank you for your March 15, 2006, letter to Secretary Bodman regarding a hydrogen-powered truck you would like to provide President Bush for use on his ranch in Texas and your interest in transforming the ranch into the first commercial scale, fully solar-powered ranch. Your letter was referred to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Hydrogen Program for response.
Your truck demonstrates the technical feasibility of using hydrogen to power our cars, a vision President Bush communicated in his 2003 State of the Union address. The President's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative commits $1.2 billion over five years to accelerate hydrogen technology. Our long-term goal is to significantly reduce dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gas and criteria emissions from the transportation sector. The President's vision is that today's preschool children could take their drivers' test in a pollution-free hydrogen car.
We appreciate your offer to provide the hydrogen powered pickup truck and hydrogen production facility for use on President Bush's ranch, but we cannot accept your offer. We agree that it is important for the Federal Government to lead by example. Even today, the United States Postal Service and the Environmental Protection Agency are using hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of a controlled research project to collect performance data on these vehicles. The investment into research and development is critical in the near-term, so demonstrations will be limited except where they are needed to provide data to feedback into our research program. Deployment for Federal demonstrations will expand as hydrogen technologies become cost-competitive and perform as well as conventional technologies.
The vision that is shared by you and the President is also shared by Congress. Title VIII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes strong support from Congress for research and for the timeline laid out by the Department to develop cost-competitive technologies by 2015. The research aims to reduce the cost of producing hydrogen, increase the durability and lower the cost of fuel cells, and improve hydrogen storage systems for greater than 300-mile range. If this research is successful, industry could have vehicles in the showroom in the 2020 timeframe. The program is ambitious, but the Nation's leaders are committed to making it happen. Please visit the Hydrogen Program's website at www.hydrogen.energy.gov to learn more about the research and demonstration activities currently underway.
Your ideas demonstrate the future possibilities of hydrogen technologies in improving our energy security and the environment. We are focused on addressing the technical and economic barriers to make those possibilities a reality.
Sincerely,
Steven Chalk
Program Manager
Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
cc: Roy McAlister Chairman Cleanpeace.or