Hydrogen and fuel cells have the potential to solve several major challenges facing America today: dependence on petroleum imports, poor air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. The Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program at the U.S. Department of Energy is working with partners to accelerate the development and successful market introduction of these technologies. Hydrogen is a clean and sustainable form of energy that can be used in mobile and stationary applications. Fuel cells harness the chemical energy of hydrogen to generate electricity without combustion or pollution. Codes and standards ensure the safe use of hydrogen and fuel cells. The vision of a new energy economy based on clean, renewable hydrogen is described in the National Hydrogen Energy Vision document. The National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap and Fuel Cell Report to Congress outline the challenges we face and suggest a path forward to achieve the promise of hydrogen and fuel cells. The first steps toward the hydrogen future are already underway. The 2002 Annual Progress Report provides a complete list of DOE-funded hydrogen and fuel cell projects for 2002. In November 2002, the world's first energy station featuring hydrogen and electricity co-production opened in Las Vegas, Nevada.
During the 2003 State of the Union message, President George W. Bush announced a $1.2 billion FreedomCAR and Fuel Initiative to reverse America's growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the technology needed for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells - a way to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses that produces no pollution and no greenhouse gases. Building on the FreedomCAR (Cooperative Automotive Research) Initiative, which was launched in January 2002, President Bush is proposing a total of $1.7 billion over the next five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, hydrogen infrastructure and advanced automotive technologies. America's astronauts have used fuel cells to generate electricity since the 1960s, but more work is needed to make them cost-effective for use in cars, trucks, homes or businesses. Using current technologies, it is too expensive to produce, store, transport and distribute hydrogen fuel, or to build fuel cell engines. Additional research and development is needed to spur rapid commercialization of these technologies so they can provide clean, domestically produced energy for transportation and other uses.
In all, the disc set has over 21,000 pages reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software - allowing direct viewing on Windows and Apple Macintosh systems. Reader software is included on the CD. There is no other reference that is as fast, convenient, comprehensive, and portable.
Our CD-ROMs are privately-compiled collections of official public domain U.S. government files and documents - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work, utilizing the benefits of the Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed or printed without untold hours of tedious searching and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This book-on-a-disc set makes a great reference work and educational tool for anyone interested in energy production, automotive technology, or our economy.
