Here are two stories about policy trends:
influential US constituencies are getting more
specific about electrifying transportation;
Iceland is moving toward plug-in cars and giving
up its fuel-cell dreams, while US media continue
to echo past hopes for a someday solution from hydrogen.

Securing America's Future Energy
http://www.secureenergy.org has been focusing on
the issue of energy security since its "Oil
Shockwave" simulations in 2005-06, where former
government officials role-played cabinet officers
reacting to geopolitical catastrophes and energy
disruptions. A transition to plug-in cars
repeatedly emerged as an urgent priority. (Search
for "shockwave" among the headlines at http://www.calcars.org/news-archive .)

The organization then formed a blue-ribbon Energy
Security Leadership Council, co-chaired by Fred
Smith, FedEx founder and chair, and General P.X.
Kelly, former Marine Corps commandant and Joint
Chiefs of Staff member. Its December 2006 64-page
report, "Recommendations to the Nation on
Reducing U.S. Oil Dependence"
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/622.html ,
endorsed plug-in hybrids along with many other
recommendations. The ESLC was deeply involved in
the debate and negotiation over what eventually
became the Energy Independence and Security Act
of 2007, the bipartisan energy bill which despite
limitations included the first improvements in CAFE standards since the 1970s.

Now ESLC has a new and even more hard-hitting
report, "A National Strategy for Energy
Security." You can download it at
http://www.secureenergy.org/site/page.php?node=353&id=57
(8MB). Recommendations on pages 8-9 include an
$8,000 tax credit for two million plug-in cars.
Pages 34-44 are about plug-in cars and the smart
grid. The very readable, well-researched and
well-designed 140-page report includes many
non-green technology, often, however, acknowledging their CO2 emissions.

PRESS RELEASE: "SAFE Launches Television, Print,
Online Ads In Support of 9/24 Report Release"
http://www.secureenergy.org/site/page.php?node=364&id=80

WASHINGTON - Securing America's Future Energy
(SAFE) today announced the launch of a
television, print, and online advertising
campaign emphasizing the necessity for
comprehensive solutions to the tremendous
economic and national security vulnerabilities
posed by oil dependence. The ads will run in
support of the Wednesday release of a new,
comprehensive plan to combat our nation's dependence on oil.

"Tomorrow, the business and military leaders of
SAFE's Energy Security Leadership Council will
lay out their comprehensive, detailed plan to end
our destructive dependence on oil," SAFE
President and CEO Robbie Diamond said. "It is
important that policymakers and thought leaders
understand the dangers that we face, and the
necessity for a bold solution to take us off of
our current dangerous path. We can change our
future, through electrification of the
transportation system, vehicle fuel economy
standards, expanded domestic production of oil
and natural gas, and greater support for R&D. We
have a choice. The solution is there: now it is time to act."

The television ads will run on broadcast and
cable stations in Washington, D.C. The print and
online ads will appear in Washington and Capitol Hill publications.

THE ADS include images of battlefields and
buildings, with ominous music.See them at
http://www.secureenergy.org/site/page.php?node=343 . Here are the transcripts:

Warned (30 seconds):
For almost three decades, America has been
warned: Oil dependence threatens our economy and our security.
Twenty-one business and national security leaders
have proposed a bold plan to improve U.S. energy security.
The approach: fuel economy standards;
electrification of the transportation sector;
increased domestic production; and enhanced government R&D.
Oil dependence is the problem. Now, there’s an answer.
A project of Securing America’s Future Energy.

Choices (30 seconds):
America must choose between two energy security futures:
In one future, our nation improves energy
security through fuel economy standards;
electrification of the transportation sector;
expanded domestic production; and enhanced government R&D.
In the other, America continues business as usual
and risks a crippling oil crisis.
Choose wisely.
Oil dependence is the problem. Now there’s an answer.
A project of Securing America’s Future Energy.


ICELAND GOES ELECTRIC: Last year we presented at
Iceland's first Driving Sustainability conference
and arranged for the nation's energy agency to
get a PHEV Prius conversion. Most people have the
impression that the country is well on its way to
a future based on hydrogen fueled by its
renewable hydro and geothermal power. At
"Iceland's First Steps Toward Plug-In Cars --
with Global Implications"
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/861.htmll ,
we reported, "The decision to hold this
conference was the strongest sign yet that the
votes aren't yet in. As elsewhere, Icelandic
influencers looking for efficient solutions that
can be implemented now, with today's technology
and infrastructure, and that can become
increasingly cost-effective, are choosing a path
involving electrons and batteries, not hydrogen and fuel cells."

This year's conference confirmed that trend.
Longtime environmental journalist Jim Motavalli
reports that "Iceland’s Future Could Be Electric"
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/icelands-future-could-be-electric/?hp
September 19, 2008

“We see Iceland as the world’s laboratory for a
decarbonized future,” Ingibjörg Sólrún
Gisladóttir, Iceland’s foreign minister, said
last year. Of course, she was talking about the
country’s plan, announced in 1998, to become to
the world’s first hydrogen-based energy economy.
Iceland wants to be free of fossil fuels by 2050.

Could the hydrogen dream be dying? At a Reykjavik
conference this week, “Driving Sustainability
’08,” Iceland announced plans to team up with
Mitsubishi Motors to supply the country with a
fleet of tiny i-MiEV electric cars (which have a
range per charge of about 100 miles with
lithium-ion batteries). Iceland is likely to be
the first European country to have i-MiEVs, which
are scheduled to go on sale in Japan in the summer of 2009.

Electric cars with strategically located charging
stations make a lot of sense for Iceland, where
75 percent of the country’s residents live within 37 miles of the capital city.

“Hydrogen cars are not mass produced anywhere,”
said Teitur Torkelsson, managing partner of FTO
Sustainable Solutions. “But a majority of car
makers are announcing electric cars to be
produced in the next four or five years, so it
becomes a big part of our energy solutions.” Even
the country’s 840-mile-long ring road could
theoretically be covered with just 14 fast-charging stations.

CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE excerpts: "An Agreement
on Electric Vehicles Fleet Testing and Service
Network for Iceland Reached at 'Driving
Sustainability 2008' International Energy
Congress" http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=237410

"In the next five years or so we have to lay the
fundamental groundwork of a comprehensive
transformation of our traffic system, our
transport, how we use the roads, how we move from
one place to another, whether it is a household
or a city or a country." said Olafur Ragnar
Grímsson, President of Iceland, in his opening
address at Driving Sustainability at Hilton
Reykjavik Thursday....Referring to Iceland as a
role model and meeting place on the subject on
clean energy, [Grímsson] stated; "We have
formulated the vision and the ambition to get rid
of fossil fuel completely in a reasonably short time."


HYDROGEN JUXTAPOSITION: After reading the Iceland
report in the online NY Timies, we see that
today's print edition includes a new special
section, "Buinsess of Green." The lead article
and almost a full page inside feature "Pumping
Hydrogen," by Jad Mouawad,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/business/businessspecial2/24hydro.html
that reads like other optimistic stories of the
past, with impatient and frustrated quotes from
GM, Honda and Shell, "balanced" quotes from the
Natural Resources Defense Council and the same
caveats about decades-away promises and
timetables. The journalist does not show any
understanding that hydrogen comes either from
natural gas, a fossil fuel, or from wind/solar
with conversion losses in electrolysis that mean
the green power should either go into batteries
or be used to displace coal generation. The news
in the story is Shell opening a hydrogen fueling
station in Santa Monica. Hydrogen Hype never
seems to go away, but the Chevy Volt prototype
that will seen by more than 10,000 people in
Santa Monica at AltCar Expo
http://www.altcarexpo.com this Friday and Saturday will illustrate the chasm.

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Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
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