Friday, June 20, 2003
1. THE HYDROGEN SCAM: THEY STILL HAVEN'T FOUND A HYDROGEN WELL!
Far from feeling threatened, energy companies welcome the idea of a hydrogen
economy. The main commercial source of hydrogen after all is reforming of
fossil fuels, a highly
polluting process (WN 31 Jan 03). The media, however,
which tends to paint hydrogen as the savior of civilization, was in shock this
week over a report in Science pointing out
that hydrogen leakage could gobble up ozone faster than CFCs, which we banned.
Perhaps,
but that's not the fundamental problem. We've been through this before. Eight
years ago, the House Science Committee reported out the Hydrogen Future Act
of 1995. It called for
extracting hydrogen from water by electrolysis, and then using the hydrogen as
fuel to generate electricity (WN 31 Mar 95). After the laughter died down, the
bill was quietly
revised. These days, hydrogen is described by the media as "a clean energy source,"
proving there is no scam so obvious it can't be tried again. The hydrogen solution
has even been exported to Europe, where the media gushes over it like their
American counterparts.
Franco Battaglia at the University of Rome put it this way: "You can buy an apple
for one euro. If you really want an apple, you might pay five euros. You could
even pay a thousand euros, but
you would never pay two apples."
2. EMF: POWER LINES IN ITALY CAN STAY WHERE THEY ARE.
The Greens had organized a referendum calling for property owners to gain the right to drive
power lines off their land, potentially forcing the lines underground at great cost to protect
citizens from the awful ravages of EMF exposure. But this week Italians gave it a big yawn,
not bothering to vote. Since Italian law requires that more than half of the voting population
take part before a referendum can be approved, it all came to nothing.
3. RISING TEMPERATURES: EPA LEAVES OUT SECTION ON CLIMATE-CHANGE.
There had been speculation that the Bush administration doctors information to support its policies.
It's no longer speculation. An EPA report on the state of the environment was selectively edited.
According to the New York Times, a major section describing the risks we face from rising global
temperatures was so mangled by the White House that angry EPA staff decided to delete the entire
discussion rather than appear to be selectively reporting science. References to reports of
environmental effects of human activity were deleted and a reference to a study funded in part
by petroleum interests was inserted.
4. MISSILE DEFENSE: SEA-BASED INTERCEPTOR TEST IS "OFF TARGET."
On Wednesday, the Missile Defense Agency conducted an uneventful test of its Aegis interceptor
system. Very uneventful; it fell into the Pacific Ocean with no fuss. The test, however, was
not a failure; "the intercept was not the primary objective," a spokesman explained,"We just
don't know why it didn't hit."
(Andrew Essin contributed to this week’s WN.)
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