$200 million for Fuel cell cars, a waste of money?

In 2003 President Bush announced a $1.2 billion initiative to make fuel cells commercially viable over a 16-year period. Five years later, a new report issued by the National Research Council says that fuel cells are still at least 15 years away from being commercially feasible. The release says that despite “impressive progress toward commercialization,” some $200 billion is needed over the next decade and half — $55 billion from the government and $145 billion from the private sector. The report says that in the short term, fuel efficiency and biofuel research would be a more cost-effective way to reduce transportation emissions.

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Surely $200 million investment for technology that will most likely be too expense for most to afford and will only represent 1% of cars on the road and only after more than a decade of R & D is a complete waste of money? Especially as they state the objective is to reduce emissions when in reality it will be a nominal reduction if successful.

The biggest obstacles for fuel cells, the report says, are high vehicle costs and a lack of fueling infrastructure. At most, there will be only 2 million fuel cell-powered cars on American roads by 2020, representing less than 1 percent of the fleet, the NRC estimates.