H2Carsbiz (Denmark): U.S. President Bush Tours Shell Hydrogen Service Station: “… U.S. President Bush was given a tour of the Shell Benning Hydrogen Service Station in Washington D.C. The tour took place whilst President Bush is fighting in the fourth year to get his Energy Bill through the Senate.” (ShellNews.net) Posted 26 May 05

By PEB based on a White House Press Release

U.S. President George W. Bush talks to the media as he stands with Rick Scott, Operations and Safety Coordinator, Shell Hydrogen, L.L.C. at the Shell Benning Hydrogen Service Station in Washington D.C. ; the first integrated gasoline/hydrogen station in North America.

On May 25, U.S. President Bush was given a tour of the Shell Benning Hydrogen Service Station in Washington D.C. The tour took place whilst President Bush is fighting in the fourth year to get his Energy Bill through the Senate.

During the photo session at the Hydrogen fuelling station, President Bush commented that the station is the beginning of some fantastic technology, before inspecting the hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles.

“… You know, hydrogen is the wave of the future. And this country is going to have to use technology to diversify away from hydrocarbons. We're too dependent on foreign sources of energy today, and one way to diversify away from hydrocarbons is to use hydrogen, the byproduct of which will be water and not exhausts which pollute the air,” said the President. “So I'm excited to be part of a technological revolution that's going to change the country. It won't happen overnight. It's going to take a fair amount of research and development to make sure hydrogen is attractive and reasonable -- is able to be manufactured at reasonable price, distributed in a wide way for consumer satisfaction.”

With the $1.2 billion hydrogen research Hydrogen programmes launched during his first term in office, Bush seemed pleased that the efforts are bearing fruit, and noted that “ … it's coming. America leads the world in hydrogen research. It's a part of our efforts to help diversify away from hydrocarbons. And the problem we face today at the gas pump is we're too dependent on foreign sources of energy. “

Bush clearly recognized that what he saw at the Shell Hydrogen Service station is the beginning of the technology and that a new product generally is more expensive.

The U.S. President also recognized a couple of bottlenecks: “One, obviously, is the manufacturing of vehicles that use hydrogen. Secondly, it is the ability to produce hydrogen. It requires energy to produce hydrogen, and therefore, trying to use our research dollars to figure out how best to do that in efficient ways. And, finally, to make sure that the infrastructure is such that consumers can buy hydrogen in a convenient way,” said the President.

Asked about the difficulties about the Energy Bill, President Bush explained that the Bill indeed includes hydrogen and diversification away from carbon sources. According to Bush, these initiatives are elements of the overall aim to secure the United States independence from import of energy.

Hydrogen technology is not a swift fix

“This is a 10-year project, … The key is, is that we're now putting things in place today, making investments today, encouraging development of alternative sources of energy today, that will help transform our energy mix for tomorrow so that ten years from now, hopefully, we can look back and say, thankfully, Congress finally acted, and President Bush led, so that we're able to diversify away from oil and gas. And we need to do it for the sake of our energy security and national security,” finished the President of the United States.

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