Role of fossil fuels, nuclear power complicate talks

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to enlist European support for an international partnership to develop hydrogen energy, but differences over fossil fuels and nuclear power are complicating the talks.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who was outlining the administration's hydrogen policy at a conference in Belgium on Monday, planned to emphasize that the United States is committed to developing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. But the United States also is determined to find ways to build pollution-free coal-burning plants and use nuclear reactors to produce hydrogen.

The Europeans will hear that the United States is looking at all these options and that half of the research money into hydrogen sources, part of a $1.7 billion program proposed by President Bush, involves renewables.

But some European leaders believe the administration is far less committed than Europe to look into renewable energy, which they want to make the cornerstone of a hydrogen energy economy.

The vision held by both the Europeans and Americans is for hydrogen fuel cells to replace polluting coal-burning power plants and to end the need for gasoline and pollution-spewing automobiles. Fuel cells use hydrogen and oxygen to produce power, with only water as a byproduct.

For a truly pollution-free system, environmentalists argue, the hydrogen must come from a source that does not pollute. They contend that a push for renewable energy technology such as wind and solar power -- not fossil fuels -- is the answer.

Many Europeans have embraced the argument.

The European Union, for example, has committed to a benchmark of having 22 percent of its electricity, and 12 percent of its energy, come from renewables by 2010. The Bush administration has resisted any such commitments for domestic utilities.

Some of the Europeans fear that an international research effort, following the U.S. lead, might give short shift to research into renewable energy sources, says Jeremy Rifkin, an adviser to EU leaders on the hydrogren issues.

He has characterized the administration's hydrogen initiative as "a Trojan horse" for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries.

"While the European Union understands that much of the hydrogen will have to be extracted from fossil fuels in the immediate future, its long-term game plan is to rely increasingly on renewable sources of energy to extract hydrogen," Rifkin says.

In a report to be presented at conference in Brussels, a high-level EU advisory group on hydrogen development acknowledges that during the transition period, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels will be needed to make hydrogen. The report does not reject a role for nuclear power.

But the report, viewed as a likely European road map to a hydrogen economy, urges a framework of research that would "intensify the use of renewable energy."

"In the longer term, renewable energy sources will become the most important source for the production of hydrogen," the panel says.

U.S. officials sought to play down any differences. They noted that hydrogen production is just one element of the necessary research should hydrogen fuel cells replace the internal combustion engine and fossil-based power plants.

"There are far more things that we are in agreement on that we intend to pursue together than things we might disagree on," Abraham said in an interview. "We all agree we want to move toward a hydrogen economy. How we produce hydrogen is just one part of the puzzle."

Abraham said he envisions an international effort in which countries "will develop programs that fit their own priorities. How to produce hydrogen more cost effectively is just a single part of a much broader undertaking."

Hydrogen, one of the most common elements on earth, can be derived from many sources. Today, it is commonly extracted from natural gas, or methane.

It also can be made from electricity generated by a coal-burning power plant or a nuclear reactor. The electricity, in a process known as electrolysis, splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be stored and later used in a fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen to produce energy; again, water is the only byproduct.

Since Bush in February drew attention to hydrogen development, the issue has attracted intense interest in Congress and elsewhere. Lawmakers are considering a $3 billion research effort to push hydrogen fuel-cell development and creation of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure.

The Energy Department has begun a $1 billion program to develop a new generation coal-burning power plant that would make electricity and hydrogen, while capturing carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

The administration also supports a Senate proposal that calls for building a $1.1 billion nuclear reactor that would produce hydrogen.

Rifkin and other critics of the Bush agenda say those projects alone dwarf administration efforts to develop renewable energy systems that also could produce hydrogen.

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On the Net:

Energy Department: www.eren.doe.gov

National Hydrogen Association: www.hydrogenus.com

American Hydrogen Association: www.clean-air.org