Hydrogen-Power Cars Help Air Quality

Joseph J. Romm’s piece, “Lots of Hot Air About Hydrogen” (Opinion, March 28), is a shortsighted and unenlightened view of a developing technology that is likely to play a crucial role in cleaning up the Southland’s smog. Romm should spend a summer in Southern California -- where residents last year suffered 68 days of unhealthful air quality -- to appreciate the urgency for developing zero-emission vehicles. Southern California has just six years left to meet federal health-based standards for ground-level ozone air quality, or else potentially face sanctions that could hamstring the region’s economy.

The development of vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells will indeed face substantial challenges, from the refinement of fuel-cell design to the building of a hydrogen fueling network. The South Coast Air Quality Management District is co-funding a nascent network of five hydrogen fueling stations for a fleet of 35 hydrogen-powered Toyota Priuses. Unlike fuel-cell cars, these Priuses will burn hydrogen in conventional internal-combustion engines, with emissions as low as or lower than the gasoline-hybrid Prius touted by Romm.

While fuel-cell vehicles still are in the demonstration phase and can cost millions apiece, the Priuses can be converted to burn hydrogen at a relatively low cost. These kinds of vehicles can help jump-start a hydrogen fueling network, which will in turn provide an incentive for automakers to produce zero-emission fuel-cell-powered cars.

Incidentally, all of the major automakers currently are demonstrating fuel-cell vehicles, and GM has committed to bring a model to the consumer market by 2010.

Barry R. Wallerstein

AQMD Executive Officer

Diamond Bar