FCVs will have to offer consumers a viable alternative, especially in terms of performance, durability, and cost, to survive in this ultra-competitive market.

Because they don’t go through the combustion process, there’s none of the pollution that’s associated with pollution, there’s no nox, there’s no particulate formation.

FCVs are currently more expensive than conventional vehicles and hybrids. Manufacturers must bring down production costs, especially the costs of the fuel cell stack and hydrogen storage, to compete with conventional technologies.

There’s a much cheaper way to produce hydrogen: spray steam on white-hot coals and out comes mostly hydrogen gas (40 percent) and carbon monoxide (50 percent), a mixture known appropriately as “water gas.” It’s the least expensive way to make hydrogen. Unfortunately, the carbon monoxide produced along with it is highly poisonous. To extract the last bit of energy, the carbon monoxide can be burned, and that turns it into the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Electric cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells don’t produce greenhouse-enhancing carbon dioxide. But producing hydrogen does-and if we want to reduce our petroleum dependence, we’re going to have to reconcile ourselves to that fact.

If hydrogen extraction is performed using electricity from a coal-driven power plant, it doesn't matter that the fuel cell doesn't pollute because the pollution occurred when the hydrogen was extracted. If hydrogen is to be a true nonpolluting power source, the electricity used to extract the hydrogen will need to be produced by a nonpolluting method such as solar power.

Hot dry rock resources occur at depths of 3 to 5 miles everywhere beneath the Earth's surface and at lesser depths in certain areas.