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In most cases hydrogen won't be combusted, it will be used in fuel cells.Only for jets would we want hydrogen combustion. Fuels cells are much more efficient than the internal combustion engine, sometimes 3 times more efficient in fact.We made this mistake with oil. We had a great fuel and we burned it up in engines that only get 25% efficiency or less. That's 75% of the fuel potential as waste heat. The one legacy of internal combustion cars will be us remembering how well the heat worked.Electric cars are easily the wave of the future. The ONLY limitation is slow moving battery technology. Electric cars are much simpler and longer lasting with many times less moving parts to wear out. The new wheel hub motors are awesome and deliver all the power to the wheel with no loss through mechanical transfer like a drive axle or rear. All power right to the wheels, instant acceleration, no noise, no pollution. Electric is the way to go.We could all be using electric now and spending 1/10 the cost to drive. How much would that boost our economy and rid us of foreign oil reliance PLUS we;d actually have an export.We were the leaders in this type of stuff until Reagan took over and led us down the path of debt and consumption. Still, the new lithium ion are pretty much good enough, with mass production I'm sure the costs would make electric cars an easy sell vs the cost of $5 dollar a gallon gas.there are few ways to burn fossil fuel that are more inefficient that the internet combustion engine. Fuel cells work great with hydrogen, that the main idea behind using it. Many people think they chose that because it's so abundant, sure.. in the sun, but not on earth. I think the hydrogen economy may EVENTUALLY work, but chances are the low energy density of hydrogen will never be solved. Batteries such as lithium ion have comparable energy density to gas, so they are probably the obvious choice. Fuel cells that run on alcohol made from farm waste, grass and other cellulose waste could be pretty big. New selectively bred bacteria will make concerting this trash to fuel nearly energy free, so that makes stuff like ethanol somewhat practical. Though to lower carbon, and not JUST prices, you must make biofuels from waste or force higher fodd prices. For fat ass American's that would probably be a good thing, but the global effect is higher starvation levels. All in all, renewable energy, energy conservation programs, and improved batteries could get us off oil pretty quickly IF we pushed them with the full might of the government. As it stands, replacing the consumption based economy with one that rewards efficiency has proven too tricky for private industries. Since energy distribution is localized, they have a hard time pushing anything but consumption and higher prices. It's not as if they sell power cheaper they will get more customers since there is a physical limitation. I don't think the water vapor from hydrogen would stick around like CO2 does. I think the water vapor levels of earth probably represent our overall water and heat levels. Extra water vapor would likely not stay in the atmosphere, but it might do something. However, if we are smart, we'll save combustible fuels for jets since they cannot use electric. Plus most models of a hydrogen economy involve converting water to energy.I have a feeling, the way humans thing this will mean cheap energy right up until the oceans are about dry and then a last minute push to find new oceans. YEA I know, good luck using all that water up, BUT then again. I just personally like water, there in water form as it has been for a couple billion years. If we could make nuclear power cheaper it would be a viable alternative that's ready now. Just add mass produced lithium ion batteries and your there.Right now we are just waiting for this stuff to hit the market. Sadly all of Europe's energy preparation didn't create affordable high capacity batteries. STILL, as it stands, I think the average Joe can convert to electric or buy a hybrid hacked with a larger battery and charge capacity. This extends range BUT even better it means you use battery power which is 1/10 the cost of gas. ALSO, since solar, wind and hydro are obvious having MAJOR booms and electric car will work great with those technologies. Solar will likely soon be able to get people off the grid. SO, that means your electric car becomes FREE to drive if your solar array is big enough.Nanosolar is shipping the answer to the energy crisis right now. The only problem is limited quantity. Solar has more or less arrived AND even if it hadn't the current panels are only getting cheaper as fossil fuels get more expensive. So the obvious future is renewable energies. It may sound idealistic, but all indicators point to renewable energy being able to handle ALL the nations needs.Even better is the idea of generating your own power from home with a cheap solar panel film that cost only a fraction of the current panels costs. Even if nanosolar doesn't pan out, the technology proves it's possible to mass produce much cheaper solar technology. You take that and the fact that a good solar array needs a good battery and you have a lot of money being dumped in battery research.The most promising are the super capacitor batteries which a few teams are working on now. They will offer nanotech improvements to capacitors storage ability and the fast charge of a capacitor. Seems promising, but no tangible product yet I thinkHowever, lithium ion is good enough to power a high speed electric spots car around 300 miles AND it can charge in 10 min. What else do we need ? To wait for a new gas ? Lets just mass produce fast charge lithium ion and pump out long lasting electric cars. IF we hurry we could still get a bit of a jump on the industry as GAS PRICES SKYROCKET.The rest of the stuff is here. There are many cool electric car conversion kits many of which are only 3-4 grant plus the battery bank maybe another thousand depending on the size of vehicle and range.Even now you can use old ass lead acid batteries to make a car that can drive 60 miles on a charge using an existing car body and frame with the transmission, engine, gas tack, ect removed. It's a big conversion overall, but overall they are cheaper the internal combustion engines, last longer AND they cost 1/10 the price to run with the future only looking better.The kits are pretty weak compared to the high end wheel hub lithium ion cars, but the fact is they are here and there and there is no real limitation other than the mass production of lithium ion batteries for cars. If we don't jump on this China will and we'll be importing electric car parts from them... we'll I guess we will be either way, BUT DAMN at least we could try. The current crop of American's would just rather consume and waste while laughing at people who tell them to be efficient. Bah it's my country I'll waste if I want assh**e SUV drivers. Carter warned us in the 70's and we laughed at him and voted in Reagan. Talk about self destructive behavior. We could have pioneered the electric car as a cheaper alternative at least a decade ago if not two or even three had we actually tried.However, why think about long term savings when we can afford cheap oil now.

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