The government s own studies, conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, have found that a 100 pound per car weight reduction in the passenger fleet would cause approximately 300 additional deaths annually. Given that the PNGV prototypes tout a weight loss on the order of 1,000 pounds, the associated toll, on a fleet-wide basis, could be on the order of 3,000 additional deaths annually. New safety technologies will, perhaps, reduce this toll, but those technologies would have the same life-saving effect in conventional cars as well. Fuel Cell Drawbacks Environmental groups have been touting fuel cells in recent years as the solution to the problem of carbon dioxide emissions from internal combustion engines. Major car companies, such as GM and Daimler-Chrysler have been persuaded to invest huge sums in the companies developing these environmentally friendly dynamos, such as Canada s Ballard Technologies.
Fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen in a reaction that yields water.
This is accomplished in a separate unit known as a reformer. Of course, this requires energy, and the most likely source of this energy would be from fossil fuels. Sounds like fuel cells aren t all they re cracked up to be. E-Mail Us Views expressed on this website and linked to this website are for consideration and are not necessarily the views of the Cooler Heads Coalition or the National Consumer Coalition. This site is designed and maintained by Rich Zipperer .