inkbluesky

Is the Hydrogen Age Just Around the Corner?

Myth No. 1: A hydrogen industry needs to be built from scratch The production of hydrogen is already a large, mature industry, and the global hydrogen industry annually produces 50 million metric tons (50 billion kilograms) of hydrogen, worth about $150 billion. To put that into perspective, the current global output of pure hydrogen has the energy equivalence of 1.2 billion barrels of oil, or about a quarter of U.S. petroleum imports. The hydrogen industry is growing at 6 percent a year, thus doubling every 12 years. All this is happening without the incentives that would be provided by a growing fleet of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in need of fuel. If the hydrogen industry can expand so quickly “below the radar,” it will have no problem expanding quickly enough to fuel the needs of hydrogen fuel-cell cars in the future.

One shouldn’t get hung up on the incentives aspect of moving toward using more hydrogen. Everyday we drive on a nationwide taxpayer provided incentive for the car and oil industry. Its called a road.

life or something like it 

What’s a new year without a top of something or other list, The Bush administration’s dumbest legal arguments of the year - By Dahlia Lithwick

10. The NSA’s eavesdropping was limited in scope.

Not at all. Recent revelations suggest the program was launched earlier than we’d been led to believe, scooped up more information than we were led to believe, and was not at all narrowly tailored, as we’d been led to believe. Surprised? Me neither.

9. Scooter Libby’s sentence was commuted because it was excessive.

Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was found guilty of perjury and obstructing justice in connection with the outing of Valerie Plame. In July, before Libby had served out a day of his prison sentence, President Bush commuted his sentence, insisting the 30-month prison sentence was “excessive.” In fact, under the federal sentencing guidelines, Libby’s sentence was perfectly appropriate and consistent with positions advocated by Bush’s own Justice Department earlier this year.

If you’re not a fan of the Bill of Rights and there seems to be quite a few of my fellow citizens who could care less; the other eight examples of the Bushies using the Constitution as a substitute for toilet paper will no doubt bring a robust Stalin-like chuckle. To the rest of us not so much.