the proper versus current approach to "alternative fuels"

Hydrogen, as we currently use and create is not a fuel at all, it's a glorified battery. Hydrogen is exactly as green as the power grid, and less efficient. The way we produce hydrogen is by electrolysis of water. We tear water apart and get the H2 out of the H2O. Which is then used to power cars or other vehicles, either by direct burning or by a fuel cell. In either case, you're still talking about making hydrogen via electrolysis of water. That takes energy to do and it's that energy which is ultimately used to power cars. If we had hydrogen floating around for free we'd use it to power turbines and make electricity out of it. We don't. We have to make hydrogen and do a poor job at it. When you say "and a fuel (hydrogen)" -- you're being extremely disingenuous and moreover just plain wrong. Hydrogen isn't a fuel the way we do hydrogen. Furthermore, hydrogen is messy. It is the tiniest molecule (it's diatomic ergo molecule) there is, and thus leaks out of pretty much everything like a sieve. We have no infrastructure for the creation of hydrogen. We have no infrastructure for the transportation of hydrogen. We have no infrastructure for the distribution of hydrogen. We have no infrastructure for the use of hydrogen. We have no infrastructure for dealing with accidents resulting in hydrogen leaks. We have no infrastructures for dealing with accidents involving hydrogen cars. We don't even have the flipping cars! We have nothing towards this solution, which isn't even a solution at all! Hydrogen isn't carbon free, hydrogen is simply using power from the power grid to split water and use the hydrogen as a fuel. However, you put more energy into that equation than you're ever going to get out again (2nd law of thermodynamics). Currently, most of that energy comes from coal! --- Now you might ask, if not this then what? What will the future look like? Later this year, with all of the needed infrastructure intact, we are going to get the first line of manufacturer-created (there were earlier mods) plug-in hybrids. Using a gas-electric system with a large battery bank it allows people to plug their cars in at home or work to power them with enough range to travel around 50 miles before switching to the gas system. That's well more than the vast majority of people's driving. Many people could easily go months without needing another tank of gas. Electricity from the grid (directly) costs about a dollar a gallon (in comparative terms). We have the gasoline infrastructure. We have the electric infrastructure. We have the cars. There are standard hybrids on the road and getting in accidents today and we are developing mechanisms for dealing with them accordingly. There has been massive and continual advances in battery technology so as the technology gradually improves (we don't have to replace all the cars overnight). We're going to cut down the charge time as well as increase the travel range in incremental steps. As gas prices go higher, the lure of Plug-In Hybrids will become stronger. The need to innovate the technology will become stronger. Further, we don't need some massive revamping of the entire infrastructure to switch over to a entirely new fuel. Further, though corn-based ethanol is a disaster, sugarcane-ethanol is not and improving the gas engines to accept flex-fuel mixes allows those countries with successful ethanol programs to use the same cars. If, by some miracle, our ethanol programs become less of a joke we could still use them in the newer cars. Further you could add solar panels to the car (really a pittance in addition). Due to the smaller size of the engine allow multiple fuels. Further if the technology advances far enough the gas component could drop away completely. --- Your solution is not a solution at all. You're inefficiently distributing energy from the power grid, in leaky form without any underlying infrastructure. I am proposing a solution already progressing in that direction. With a large influx of plug-in hybrids we will reduce our dependence on oil. Then we are down to the task of replacing our grid based brown energy with green (a task we are already slated with).