Greetings and Introductions: Chapter President, John Gotthold, greets all attendees and asks each attendee to state their name and a short synopsis of their background and what they hope to learn by attending the meeting. 10 minutes.
1. Government Support for Hydrogen: Certifications - fuel cells and alternative energy automobiles cannot be deployed until some Government safety body certifies then for safe use. Luckily is proceeding apace around the world. We will look at many examples.
2. The Race to Hydrogen: Around the world societies are beginning to wake up to the necessity of converting to renewable fuels. But only a small percentage of legislators ( most of them lawyers) get it. Sixteen Senators in the US are pushing for a large incentive package for the use of renewable fuels, but even if fully implemented it will reach only four percent of use. People only react to crisis. Next years hurricanes in the gulf would be a good thing if it wakes us up.
We will look at several international efforts to get governments moving to renewable energy. Is there
a human right to renewable energy?
3. Technology: There are still two blockages in the path to a hydrogen economy. One is a low cost membrane for PEM fuel cells. And the second is a safe high density storage method for Hydrogen. Scientific efforts are under way around the world to make these technologies happen, but if they don't soon, automobiles and warm houses will become the province of only the rich who can pay $10.00 per gallon for gas and $100 per therm for natural gas. We look at several of the new scientific efforts to solve these two core problems.
4. Global warming: As more and more evidence accumulates, that we humans have vastly changed the atmosphere of the planet by burning the four hundred million year accumulation of fossil fuels, efforts are being made to change to renewable alternatives. We will look at US States and small countries who are trying to become oil free. US isolated on climate change.
