This commentary is by Greg Pierce of St. Albans, a retired professional civil engineer.
I’m seldom at a loss for words. After reading section five of the comprehensive energy plan draft on transportation, I was aghast and — momentarily — speechless. The exclusively battery electrification of the Vermont transportation system? Wow! Let’s take it one step at a time.
Presently, Vermont’s transportation runs on fossil fuel But, current law requires us to end the domain of fossil fuel because it is far and away the biggest polluter of our Earth’s atmosphere. Now, think through the names of major fossil fuel suppliers: leading oil and gas companies in the U.S.
- ExxonMobil. ExxonMobil is the leading oil and gas company of the U.S. with a market value of $356.5 billion.
- Chevron. Chevron is the second-largest U.S. oil and gas company.
- ConocoPhillips. The third-largest oil and gas company in the U.S., which has a market value of $76.7 billion.
- Occidental Petroleum.
- Sun Oil Company (Sunoco).
Altogether, the value of large energy companies represents enormous financial power. So, ask yourself are the above companies and other notable fossil fuel companies, all over the planet, going to sit around on their collective derrieres and see America and the rest of the world go to exclusively battery-powered electric vehicles. There is no way that is going to happen.
Why? Because “Big Oil” is going to transmogrify into “Big Hydrogen” and, therein lies their reason for existing: “Big Money!”
It’s already happening folks:
- Thirty-five countries spread all over the planet are moving to hydrogen.
- Forty-seven U.S. states are involved in the move to hydrogen.
Noteworthy, regarding the U.S. on hydrogen, is the dense concentration of activity among the Northeastern seaboard states and the conspicuous absence of the state of Vermont in the listing.
Click here for details on the U.S. Department of Energy undertakings in the move to hydrogen.
And how is it all going to happen? It’ll be the alliance of government and industry, as we have so often witnessed in other great national adventures. Big Gov and Big Oil are not going into electricity. Big Gov and Big Oil are going to make America big on hydrogen-powered vehicles. Exclusively electric-battery-powered vehicles will turn out to be a brief and unpleasant side note in the annals of American transportation history.
So, Vermont Department of Public Service, for heaven’s sake, please don’t embarrass our proud little state in front of the whole United States and the world. Don’t make us a laughingstock. Please scrap all of the totally unrealistic present section five of the comprehensive energy plan and do a complete rewrite, focusing on what’s actually going to happen in the next 28 years.
Following are a few useful tidbits of well-grounded, factual wisdom in support of a rewrite.
The hydrogen under discussion in this commentary is so-called “green” hydrogen. It is produced by the electrolysis of water using safe, clean, renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric and solar. The hydrogen is fed into fuel cells, where electricity is produced to power the electric drive motors of the hydrogen vehicle.
The only waste product of this process is pure water. No greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere. Click here to download the “Green Hydrogen Guidebook” and read detailed information on green hydrogen.
Additional common sense factors need to be thought through carefully — for example, exclusively electric vehicles have many negative, even dangerous, aspects, to wit:
1. If the electricity to recharge the batteries comes from a plant such as Burlington Electric’s wood-fired electric plant, greenhouse gases continue to pollute our atmosphere.
2. Batteries for “exclusively” electric vehicles have disturbing drawbacks:
a) they are extremely heavy, exceeding a half a ton, causing great public expense due to the need for heavier, stronger motor vehicles and more frequent repair and replacement of public roadways
b) batteries provide short distance/range capability between recharging as opposed to long distance/range for hydrogen vehicles
c) recharging batteries takes a long time, up to an hour. Refilling a hydrogen vehicle is done in five minutes or less.
d) batteries are prone to unpredictable explosions and fires, and even much more so if recharging is expedited to save time.
e) batteries introduce troubling environmental concerns relating to open-pit mining of specialty battery metals, and disposal of spent batteries.
f.) safety in vehicle impact accidents is greatly diminished due to massive battery weights, which will cause far greater vehicle and property damage as well as more serious personal injuries.
Miscellaneous useful information
In February 2019, there were 6,558 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road.
As of Nov. 1 of this year in California:
Fuel cell cars sold and leased: 12,082.
Fuel cell buses in operation: 48
Fuel cell buses in development: 58
Hydrogen stations available in California: 47
Toyota, Honda, Hyundai are all manufacturing and selling hydrogen vehicles. Toyota’s Mirai has been on the road since 2016
In October of this year, New York state began constructing a large new hydrogen production plant that will use clean renewable hydroelectric power to produce the hydrogen. Click here for details.
Four hydrogen vehicle filling stations already exist on the East Coast — two stations in Massachusetts and one station each in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Click here for a location map.
The passenger car hydrogen refueling stations cited above are located at regular gasoline stations. Hydrogen refueling is performed by the vehicle operator the same as is done for gasoline refueling. The refueling takes five minutes or less. There is no spilling of fuel, as all fill connections are pressure-tight. Click here and here and here for multiple visuals of new hydrogen fueling stations.
Does Vermont have to “go it alone” in moving from fossil fuel to hydrogen? An emphatic NO. Review the following data for confirmation.
- Given the long history of Vermont purchasing New York hydroelectric power, there’s every likelihood New York would be honored to act positively on a request from Vermont to “buy in” to the new New York state hydrogen production facility.
- Bringing New York-produced hydrogen to Vermont filling stations would be the same as Vermont presently brings in most of its fossil fuels — by highway tractor-trailer trucks.
- Informed citizens in nearby Northeastern cities will quickly understand the obvious limitations of “exclusively” battery electric cars and it will sway their decision to make a hydrogen vehicle purchase. Sadly, will they want to drive to Vermont to enjoy our ski areas, hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, camping, autumn foliage tours if Vermont hasn’t had the foresight to make hydrogen fueling stations readily available to out-of-state visitors?
