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| of the press, assumed that BMW had fitted some vehicles with the other “zero” emissions fantasy, the fuel cell. My thanks to CAR and Driver magazine for bursting our bubble and announcing to the world that these BMW vehicles have modified internal combustion engines. The engine modifications were developed sometime in the 1970s’. BMW is attempting to prove that hydrogen is a safe vehicle fuel. They hope that the demonstration will provide support for and the implementation of the infrastructure necessary to make hydrogen a viable alternative to gasoline and diesel fuel. I still have some doubts. I haven’t seen any information about what type of vehicle fuel tanks are required. I haven’t read anything about how the hydrogen can be transported or stored. I certainly haven’t seen any data about or how the hydrogen boosters plan to capture or generate the hydrogen. Hydrogen is plentiful in the atmosphere. It combines easily with many other elements including oxygen and carbon. All of these facts still don’t prove that hydrogen is either plentiful or renewable. We have known for years that the hydrogen atom, when harnessed, releases tremendous amounts of energy. We also know how volatile hydrogen can be. What we don’t know is why it would take so long to recognize and harness hydrogen’s assets with all of this information. Do big multinational companies and government bureaucracies have so much power to keep hydrogen in the closet? I don’t believe so. Both Jim McGrevy and Bret Schumler campaigned as committed to reducing urban sprawl. Both, even after the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001, propose to limit our housing and transportation choices. Both supported removing the Garden State Parkway tollbooths. Are they on the right path? Should we continue to provide choice targets to the enemies of our chosen way of life? Are we selfish? Do we waste resources such as oil and natural gas? Should we be concerned with Global warming and the effects of our industrialized economy? These questions must be answered quickly. I hope that you don’t get the wrong opinion about what I am attempting to say here. We lost too many useful and productive lives in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. Many performed individual acts of bravery. We owe the many who died as well as those who survived the terrorist attack a great debt. We may have set a new record for American lives lost but, when looking at the number of people who survived, we were extremely fortunate. My question is will we be tempting fate to continue to urbanize our population or should we take a new, yet to be defined, course of action? Geo. R. Reinis President; NJ-VORC |
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