The fact I hear so many people out there chanting this as it will SAVE US in the future really annoys me about the ignorance of society, all of a sudden everyone is an expert on energy. Sorry to burst your bubble but there will be no switch to hydrogen. Hydrogen is not a fuel, it’s an energy transfer medium. It must be made from either water or natural gas. The rate of energy loss in hydrogen is as high as 80%. You would need a fuel tank the size of your car to get the same energy as a tank of gasoline. Not to mention the transport/storage issues (compression/liquefaction/pressure/leaks, etc)

Bottom line is hydrogen has a very low energy density, and is a net energy loss. That is, it’s EROEI is very negative 0.2:1.

Government responses to global warming are often simply suggestions in lowering your quality of life (e.g. use public transport, turn off your lights, hang out clothes). I see problems with this:

1. This will not stop global warming, it only slows it down
2. For this to be at all effective everyone would have to participate, which is totally unrealistic.
3. Whether we use the energy or not, the greenhouse gases are still being pumped into the atmosphere in astonishing amounts.

Doesn’t the problem lie in the government’s means of power generation (burning of fossil fuels), not in the public’s power consumption. Are governments trying to avoid the costs by shoving the burden onto us. Where are the hydrogen cars? Hydrogen cars exist, but where are they?
I am aware the government’s income is from tax payers, however once the money is their hands they don’t want to spend it on nuclear stations/geothermals/dams, so therefore they tell us to use public transport (money in their pockets again). Whether we take the train or not, carbon emissions will still be pumped into the air and global warming will continue. I am from Australia and I may be wrongfully assuming that the US government is making the same moves.
Even if we made every single building in the world to use more natural cooling and heating methods that save on energy, tonnes and tonnes of carbon emissions will STILL be put in the air, regardless of how much is saved. If we spent that money on fixing the source of the power itself then our problem would be solved. The solution lies in the way we generate power, not in how much we use it.

And how much energy will it cost to obtain the hydrogen to fuel hydrogen cars?