Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Governors are Coming

What do a thousand jailed demonstrators, President Obama, a dozen Fortune 100 CEOs, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and a melting ice sculpture of a polar bear have in common? Two things. First, they are all part of the climate talks in Copenhagen that finally start in earnest this week after ten days of street […]

Schwarzenegger lowers expectations for Copenhagen

Looking tanned and coiffed, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stood in sharp contrast to the wan, glum denizens of Copenhagen’s Bella Center. According to one political insider, the typical morale trajectory for a conference of this scale is cautious optimism for the first few days, despair in the middle, a spurt of can-do spirit in the […]

Climate and hydrogen car advocate gets almost everything wrong

Once upon a time, some serious people used to believe that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) might have a snowball’s chance in hell of being a practical and affordable climate strategy in our lifetime.  Those very sincere people were used by the car companies and Bush Administration as part of a strategy to oppose or […]

Ahnold promises ‘action’ at California climate summit

Photo: Peter GrigsbyGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his best buddies from around the world flexed their muscles at the second annual Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles this week. Actor Harrison Ford, chimp expert Jane Goodall, and a slate of A-list dignitaries from 70 countries packed a Century City luxury hotel to debate how best to […]

Does Schwarzenegger care more about tea partiers or the planet?

Like any Hollywood actor, and like any politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to talk a good game. And on climate, he talks a lot. He loves to promote inconsequential gab-fests like the Governors Global Summit on Climate Change. But when the rubber hits the road, will he actually, you know, do anything about it? Whether a […]

Myth: Democrats support good climate policy and Republicans oppose it

Energy and climate scramble the usual left-right political divisions. Many of the big fights are not among parties but among regions and levels of government. In the U.S. Congress, to be sure, the Republicans=obstructionists formula holds with virtually no exceptions save a tiny handful of remaining Senate “moderates.” Republican obstructionists are joined in the House […]

The false hope of a hydrogen economy is on its death bed

The ChiPs are down for the hydrogen highway cul de sac -- literally. The future Ponches and Jons of the California Highway Patrol won't be policing the hydrogen highway.

The false hope of a hydrogen economy is on its death bed. This dream was embraced and elevated by President Bush, who said in his January 2003 State of the Union address:

With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.

I have explained at length many times why the first car of child born in 2003 -- or the last car, for that matter -- will not be a hydrogen fuel cell car, most notably in my best selling book, The Hype About Hydrogen [Note to a picky semantic people: The book was not a best seller, but it was the best-selling of all of my books]. Maybe my best (and certainly my most widely read) paper available online [PDF] is "The car and fuel of the future," published by Energy Policy back in 2005. It is still worth reading if you want to understand why plug in hybrids, not hydrogen fuel cell cars, are the car of the (near) future.

The last vestiges of a hydrogen economy are collapsing. First, we had Honda's new FCX Clarity, which the company optimistically billed as "the world's first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production." If so, the Clarity has demonstrated to the world how distant the whole enterprise is (see here, here and here).

Now Greenwire ($ub. req'd) has a long story on the collapse of another one of the few remaining pieces of the dream, "Has Schwarzenegger's hydrogen highway gone bust?" excerpted below:

Schwarzenegger tells techies to go ‘green’

HANOVER, Germany — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off the world’s biggest high-tech fair Tuesday, telling executives to seize the economic crisis as a moment to shape up and go “green”. Schwarzenegger, this year’s guest of honor at the sprawling CeBIT fair in this northern German city, toured stands with Chancellor Angela Merkel as the […]

Schwarzenegger set to steamroll environmental regs with budget plan

California is in a heap of trouble. A $42 billion heap, to be exact. I've never had to figure out how to fix a $42 billion deficit, and I don't envy Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or his legislative sparring partners. But it's worth noting some environmental skullduggery that seems to be creeping into the negotiations. (OK, it's more straightforward than skullduggerous, but that's just too fun to say.)

First, there's a push in Schwarzenegger's proposed budget to exempt several transportation projects from environmental review. Or, to put it more plainly, "Just let us build our highways, you girly men." Supporters of the California Environmental Quality Act (traditionally known as "Democrats") are not happy.