"Readers looking to separate facts from hype about cars running on hydrogen and large-scale fuel cell systems will find a useful primer here."-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Lately it has become a matter of conventional wisdom that hydrogen will solve many of our energy and environmental problems. Nearly everyone -- environmentalists, mainstream media commentators, industry analysts, General Motors, and even President Bush -- seems to expect emission-free hydrogen fuel cells to ride to the rescue in a matter of years, or at most a decade or two.

Not so fast, says Joseph Romm. In The Hype about Hydrogen, he explains why hydrogen isn't the quick technological fix it's cracked up to be, and why cheering for fuel cells to sweep the market is not a viable strategy for combating climate change. Buildings and factories powered by fuel cells may indeed become common after 2010, Joseph Romm argues, but when it comes to transportation, the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions, hydrogen is unlikely to have a significant impact before 2050.

The Hype about Hydrogen offers a hype-free explanation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, takes a hard look at the practical difficulties of transitioning to a hydrogen economy, and reveals why, given increasingly strong evidence of the gravity of climate change, neither government policy nor business investment should be based on the belief that hydrogen cars will have meaningful commercial success in the near or medium term. Romm, who helped run the federal government's program on hydrogen and fuel cells during the Clinton administration, provides a provocative primer on the politics, business, and technology of hydrogen and climate protection.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 25 reviews)

Hydrogen Hype

I liked this book very much. I was ignorant about Hydrogen and I enjoyed Mr. Romm's book. Hydrogen is hype. I wanted to learn something about hydrogen and fuel cells and now I know enough that when I see these talking heads on CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNBC talking about fuel cells and hydrogen this and hydrogen that and a hydrogen economy, I know they are full of prunes and they've never read a book. I enjoyed the book and it was well written. But I can tell Mr. Romm, I am not worried about climate change. The lack of oil, natural gas and fresh water will kill us long before we have to worry about climate change. Regards, Keith Renick, Peachtree City, Ga.
July 05, 2008

No mention of water fuel device inventors and their patents???

How can you write a book on the promise of hydrogen fuel and leave out the true heroes - the international group of water fuel device inventors who patiently and skillfully developed, patented and publicly demonstrated their devices over the past 100+ years? What kind of cover-up is this? And to see all the positive reviews praising this work of apparent obfuscation! What a shame! It just goes to show that we have been very-well hoodwinked with regard to our alternative energy possibilities. We don't even know what they are! How else could it be that so many intelligent people, who seem to be "in the know", have never heard of:

Herman P. Anderson
Archie Blue
Bob Boyce
Yul Brown
Francois Cornish
C.H. and Henry "Dad" Garrett
Roy McAllister
Stanley Meyer
Francisco Pacheco
Andrijah Puharich
William Rhodes
Cliff Ricketts
Isaac de Rivaz
Ruggero Santilli
...and a host of others?

Isn't it about time we faced reality and admitted that the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen, is most readily available to us in our most abundant resource, namely, water? Let's stop denying the history of the successful use of this resource. See Water Car - How to Turn Water Into Hydrogen Fuel!
June 02, 2008

Ehhh - a bit bland and repetitive

The good; this book educated me on the promise and reality of hydrogen. Hydrogen (used for automobiles and even to power homes and businesses) hast the potential to seriously curb America's appetite for oil and to reduce carbon emmisions, but getting the technology affordable and scalable enough to distribute throughout the country is at least 20 and probably more like 30+ years away. Even then, the cost may still be higher than $3.00 gas is today, but that remains to be seen based on a number of known and unknown things about the future...

The not so good: a bit repetitive, and at times too deep technologically (of which the author warns about in the prologue)

If you are interested in alternative energy and its related issues like the United States' dependence on oil including the geopolitical impacts thereof, I would suggest reading a book that covers all energy alternatives (wind, solar, biofuels, nuclear, hydrogen, hybrid vehicles, etc.) and what the prospects for each are. Two books come to mind:

1. The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial Societies, and
2. The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

These books are easier to read, more interesting and enable the reader to better understand how all technologies may or may not be the panacea for improving our dependence on foreign oil and improving the impact that carbon emissions have had on our environment. Another book that is fairly new but which I have not read, is ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, which speaks directly about alternative energy as it pertains to cars and the automobile of the future. I plan on reading this one sometime in 2008.
January 01, 2008

The Truth About Hydrogen From An Administration Insider

This book explains in clear no-uncertain terms why Hydrogen Cars will not happen in our lifetime, and explains what the realistic alternatives are -- namely biofuel plug-in hybrids. The author is an administration hydrogen insider and one who HAS made positive changes in other areas to help reduce the USA's global warming footprint.
November 04, 2007

Well intentioned people should read this.

There are many well-intentioned people who advocate a quick switch to a hydrogen economy. This book is a must-read for them. While this book is pessimistic about the potential for a hydrogen solution to the energy issues we face, for me it is optimistic in that it allows us to get past a potential dead end and start thinking about other options that are more realistic at present. Before reading this book I thought of hybrids as a bait and switch to deflect attention from hydrogen cars. After reading this book, I realize that just the opposite is true. Hybrids are probably our best hope for now while hydrogen is a much hyped dream.
September 15, 2007

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