The ultimate merging of the two energy revolutions growth - in electricity production and increased transportation mobility through the automobile - appears inevitable in the next century as automobiles are electrified and fossil fuels yield to renewable resources. When this merging occurs, a sustainable energy economy will be possible. Efforts to increase the use of renewable resources in both markets are critically important. Hydrogen may play an important role in the merger of electricity and transportation by providing an energy carrier for renewable resources that is well suited for electrical generation in transportation applications.

The movements toward alternative transportation fuels in general and toward hydrogen vehicles in particular face huge obstacles to success, not the least of which is intense opposition from the automotive and oil industries. Using renewable resources in centralized power generation is in many ways easier than using renewable resources to power hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but transportation is the energy sector now under siege. Transportation is where society's environmental, energy, and economic problems are most severe, where the rationales for changing the status quo are most compelling, and where opportunities to develop consumer support are strongest.

A market entry approach based on the ability of renewable resources to supply hydrogen energy in transportation may be an important addition to efforts to encourage renewable resource use in the electrical generation mix. A market entry strategy for hydrogen in transportation could include the following six elements:

1.	Build widespread support around the tremendous adverse environmental, energy, and economic consequences of remaining dependent on oil and combustion engine automobiles.

The two greatest problems facing advocates for change in transportation are, first, the lack of public understanding of the broad range of consequences associated with continued reliance on oil and conventional vehicles in transportation; and, second, the lack of confidence in the exciting possibilities presented by the transition to alternative vehicles. Public education is probably the single most important factor in accelerating the sustainable transportation era. One place to start is exposing problems in the status quo.

2.	Develop market pull from consumers through public demonstrations of alternative transportation fuels and zero-emission vehicles that can help expand the demand for these vehicles by innovators, early adopters, and green consumerism.

Highly visible demonstrations, such as urban bus projects, and well-publicized programs, such as the EV1 commercialization, are critical to developing public support for alternative vehicles. This second step, therefore, is needed to illustrate the advantages of sustainable transportation.

3.	Encourage government efforts to promote use of alternative transportation fuels.

Government programs to address oil dependence and automotive air pollution must be supported, strengthened and sustained. Hydrogen and electric vehicles are not yet major players in most alternative transportation fuel use programs implemented in response to the 1990 Clean Air Act and the 1992 Energy Policy Act, or under most state government initiatives. Sustainable transportation advocates need to have a more forceful presence in these programs.

4.	Support government and private sector research, development, and demonstration of sustainable transportation systems using renewable resources to produce hydrogen that powers fuel cell vehicles.

Although the budget for the National Hydrogen Program has grown this decade, it still remains barely 0.2 of 1% of DOE's budget, a level that is totally inadequate to achieve its goals. (See Table 2.) Improvements are needed before many components of renewable resource-based hydrogen fuel cell systems are ready to enter commercial production. Research is particularly needed on direct hydrogen production from renewable resources, techniques to increase the power density of fuel cells, and fuel storage approaches with lower weight and volume requirements.

5.	Promote the two key transition technologies that hydrogen needs to develop automotive systems for use in electric vehicles powered by fuel cells.

Two transitional technologies_natural gas vehicles to shift the fueling infrastructure from liquid to gaseous fuels and electric battery vehicles_are critical to disrupting the status quo, triggering change, and establishing some of the necessary components of sustainable transportation systems. Natural gas, electric battery, and fuel cell-powered vehicles are all part of the movement away from oil and toward sustainable transportation. Unity rather than competition among proponents of these fuels and technologies is needed if attempts to challenge the awesome inertia of the oil-based transportation system can ever hope to succeed.

6.	Advocate including sustainable transportation fuels and propulsion technologies among other strategies to improve the nation's transportation system.

Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of the current movement toward sustainable transportation (and fortunately the easiest to remedy) is a lack of solidarity among advocates of different approaches to achieve this goal. Transportation is a multi-dimensional problem that defies single-action solutions. Zero-pollution vehicles, for example, will not solve our transportation problems without a reduction in vehicle miles traveled and travel will not be reduced without innovative land use planning. There is skepticism and occasionally even hostility among advocates focusing on different components of the sustainable transportation equation. Efforts that bring together the entire transportation reform community are critical to developing this solidarity.

Many activities are underway that address one or more of these elements. The challenge is to expand and coordinate them. A unified and widely supported strategy exists to promote renewable resource use in centralized power generation, but does not in transportation. Now is the time for renewable energy advocates to plan carefully to make sustainable transportation possible in the 21st century.

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