Florida is trying to head off energy crises and the prospect of worsening
air pollution with an ambitious clean energy and alternative fuels program.
Hundreds of gas-and-electric hybrid cars, as well as alternative-fuel
vehicles, are being added to the state motor pool.
Gov. Jeb Bush is pushing to make Florida the leader in hydrogen fuel
technologies, which many experts see as the eventual successor to gasoline
and coal power. Bush, calling hydrogen a “cutting-edge, next-generation
energy technology,'' asked the Legislature for $15 million in January for
research and development.
The governor was following in the footsteps of his brother, President Bush,
who made a commitment to hydrogen fuel technology in his 2003 State of the
Union address and committed $1. 7 billion toward research. In Florida,
however, lawmakers have declined to spend one dime on hydrogen. Nationally,
the technology has as many critics as champions. Some scientists say its
environmental benefits are overblown and its costs out of sight. If the
future of hydrogen is so promising, they say, private enterprise will
develop it and make it commercially viable.