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Turn on the ignition of a Toyota FCHV-4, and the future quietly hums with possibilities.
A hydrogen-powered car now being tested in West Sacramento, the FCHV-4 looks like a normal sport-utility vehicle, but its tailpipe emits only water vapor. It doesn't pollute, doesn't add to the nation's dependence on imported oil and is twice as fuel-efficient as a normal car.
The car has at least two big glitches, as do other fuel-cell vehicles being developed: They depend on fuel that won't be widely available anytime soon and can't quickly be mass-produced at a price that would attract many consumers.
"There is so much hype about hydrogen," said Joe Krovoza, a fuel-cell advocate who works at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. "A lot of people think that if we had hydrogen stations on every corner, the auto companies would be tripping over themselves to produce the vehicles. The reality is there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done on the vehicles."
Hydrogen cars received a major boost in February when President Bush endorsed a $720 million increase in fuel-cell research. Some say Bush is helping to popularize hydrogen more than science fiction writer Jules Verne, who predicted it would one day "furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light."
Such endorsements, however, tend to overshadow the vast challenges in bringing fuel-cell cars from test sites to showrooms. In subzero temperatures, fuel cell cars don't work well - their tailpipes tend to get clogged with frozen water, for instance. Another big hurdle is how to make hydrogen cheaply, safely and with as few environmental trade-offs as possible.
The least-expensive way to produce hydrogen is to derive it from natural gas or other forms of hydrocarbons. That process, however, results in carbon dioxide, the gas that contributes to global warming.
Hydrogen also can be derived from water, as Verne suggested, through a process called electrolysis. But electrolysis requires substantial amounts of electricity, which is hardly California's most reliable - or least-polluting - energy source.
Scientists hope that solar and wind power will produce a truly clean form of hydrogen. But it will be dec.ades before such alternative energies can produce hydrogen at a price comparable to that of other forms of energy, said Krovoza.
Given the lag time in making the transition to hydrogen, many environmentalists say the president also should be working toward cleaning up automobiles already on the road. Instead, the Bush administration is balking at tougher automobile fuel-economy standards, which would result in less gas being used and less pollution from tailpipes.
Last fall, the administration joined auto companies in a legal challenge to California's mandate for electric and other zero-emission cars. Partly because of the lawsuit, the state Air Resources Board is mulling over new regulations that would let Detroit off the hook for developing zero-emission cars.
"Its a huge contradiction," said Jason Mark of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "On one hand, the president is talking about a hydrogen future. On the other hand, the administration is joining automakers in keeping California from implementing the one policy that is encouraging production of these cars."
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