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Newsletters | Site Map | Subscribe to the Print Edition | Traffic | Weather | Wireless Delivery | Yellow Pages In the mood for a 2004? Buy a New Car Search Archives | News | Sports | Business | Politics | Opinion | Entertainment | Lifestyle | Travel | Women | Classifieds | Homes | Cars | Jobs | Shopping | Sacbee: / Politics Powered by: accessBee -- Internet for just $13.95 Sections: 24-HOUR NEWS · Politics WEBLOGS · California Insider ARCHIVES · Budget · California · Local · Nation · The Buzz COLUMNS · Dan Walters · Daniel Weintraub · Peter Schrag ELECTION 2004 · Latest Bee coverage CARTOONS · Rex Babin archive x - close Recent Stories By Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fuels a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on the University of California, Davis campus Tuesday. Associated Press/Steve Yeater Schwarzenegger promises 'Hydrogen Highway' by 2010 Published 2:45 pm PDT Tuesday, April 20, 2004 After tooling across a university campus in a Toyota Highlander propelled by a clean-burning hydrogen engine, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Tuesday that California will have a network of stations offering the pollution-free fuel up and down the state within six years. The pledge, which has been made by the governor before, was formalized in an executive order he signed at a morning press conference at the University of California, Davis -- site of one of the country's most advanced centers for the study of alternative transportation systems. Although many industry experts say the governor's plans are ambitious -- estimated to cost $100 million -- Schwarzenegger said he believes the technology is available but government needs to play a catalyst role in making the new fuel system a reality. "Your government will lead by example," he said. "As I have said many times, the choice is not between economic progress and environmental protection. Here in California, growth and protecting our nature beauty go hand in hand." Schwarzenegger's order calls on state agencies to work with private companies and existing research coalitions to build the hydrogen network. He has asked California Environmental Protection Secretary Terry Tamminen to come up with a plan by Jan. 1 2005, for how the system might be put together. He said he will support legislation that would create tax incentives or public financing proposals that might be needed. Still, much work remains to be done. "There are a lot of companies interested," said Daniel Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. "The challenge here is how to coordinate a lot of these investments." Sperling said the governor's order calls together key players in the industry along with state officials to put together the plan for establishing the network. Like the Toyota that Schwarzenegger tested on the Davis campus, a number of auto manufacturers have built special fuel cell vehicles for test purposes. Instead of using gasoline for power, fuel cell cars are powered by electric engines that rely on a chemical reaction caused when hydrogen and oxygen are mixed. The chemical reaction produces electricity which powers the vehicle. The vehicle that Schwarzenegger drove has a driving radius of about 120 miles before needing a fill up, according to Ken Kurani, a UC Davis research engineer. Currently the cost of both the vehicle and the fuel is far more that existing gas models but as more and more hydrogen vehicles are built and fueling stations are established, the price should come down, Kurani said. EPA's Tamminen has said the network proposed by the governor would provide about 200 stations statewide -- a small fraction of California's existing network of 10,000 retail gas outlets today.
Approximate Word count = 2394
Approximate Pages = 9.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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