White House Shifts Gears
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Wednesday announced a new partnership between the federal government and domestic automakers to promote the development of fuel cell vehicles.
The new program, called Freedom Cooperative Automotive Research, will also focus on developing a hydrogen refueling infrastructure, Abraham said.
The program replaces the Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle program started by the Clinton administration to develop a vehicle that could attain 80 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.
"The long-term results of this cooperative effort will be cars and trucks that are more efficient, cheaper to operate, pollution-free and competitive in the showroom," Abraham said during the announcement at Cobo Hall, site of the North American International Auto Show.
Environmental groups hail the program to replace the century-old internal combustion engine, reports CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts. But with fuel efficiency now at a 21-year low they say the Administration mustn't just look to the distant future.
"We have much more immediate problems about meeting our oil needs, meeting our energy needs, and we can and should do a lot more in the interim…in addition to promoting fuel cell vehicles," said Stephen Nadel, director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Automobile fuel economy likely is to be a major issue when the Senate takes up energy legislation next month. Democrats are calling for the government to require increased auto fuel efficiency, especially as it applies to the popular SUVs.
The Energy Department and senior White House policy officials in the Bush administration all along have expressed little enthusiasm for the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles.
The department said the new fuel cell program would supersede the new-generation vehicle partnership, which had pushed industry development of hybrid gasoline-electric cars now just entering the market. The old program had focused industry attention on finding ways to improve fuel economy without reducing car size and zip.
Fuel cells produce electricity from the chemical reaction that happens when hydrogen is combined with oxygen. The only waste product is water. Fuel cells are already used to provide electricity on space shuttles.
But fuel cells are expensive and hydrogen is a potent explosive. Also, there is currently no hydrogen refueling infrastructure. With the government fully behind their development, automakers believe those hurdles can be overcome.
Begun in 1993 and championed by the Clinton administration — especially Vice President Al Gore — the joint venture between the federal government and the Big Three domestic automakers was seen as a way to put family-size sedans that get 80 miles per gallon into showrooms by 2004.
Using advanced aerodynamics, new engine technologies and lighter composite materials, the automakers in the program developed prototypes of vehicles capable of getting more than 70 mpg, three times better fuel economy than most cars now on the road. But commercial development of large numbers of these cars in the next few years, as once envisioned, was not expected.
Although Abraham supported the program as a senator from Michigan, shortly after he became energy secretary he said the highly touted program had outlived its usefulness because the auto industry was going in a different direction.
The administration proposed slashing funding for the program as part of its first budget a year ago. Nevertheless, Congress continued to keep it alive, even as some environmental groups and the watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense called the program an unnecessary subsidy for the car industry.
Instead, the administration intends to focus on speeding up development of hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles, a technology that has attracted intense interest in recent years.
This new government-industry partnership "will further the president's national energy policy, which calls for increased research in hydrogen technology to diversify and enhance America's energy security," the Energy Department said.
It is hoped that the new federal push for development of fuel cells will spur industry efforts to develop motor vehicle engine and power systems that eventually will replace the internal combustion engine.
Although several automakers, including DaimlerChrysler AG, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., have said they expect to have fuel-cell vehicles in showrooms within the next four or five years, wide availability of such cars is probably a decade or more away.
A fuel cell produces energy from a chemical reaction when hydrogen is combined with oxygen. The only byproduct is water. In recent years, the cost of fuel cells has dropped sharply. Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas aboard vehicles or pure hydrogen can be used, requiring development of a new supply infrastructure.
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