Survey Respondents Favor Biofuels Over Hydrogen as Future Automotive Fuel

Results of September 2004 EVWorld.Com reader ePoll

(PRWEB) October 4, 2004 -- Ever since the 2003 State of the Union address, political momentum has been building for a shift away from America's dependence on petroleum to hydrogen. Supporters foresee a day when our homes, businesses and even our cars will run on pollution-free, hydrogen fuel cells.

But that vision could be decades into the future as researchers struggle to not only dramatically reduce the cost of million dollar fuel cell vehicles but also find ways to inexpensively manufacture and safely contain the lightest gas in the universe. Even the federal government has postponed its own decision on the feasibility of a hydrogen-based economy until 2015.

Meanwhile, the use of carbohydrate-based biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel is growing. US carmakers already have put more than a million dual fuel light trucks and cars on the nation's highways, many of them capable of burning E85, a blend of 85 percent American-grown, dry grain-based ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, potentially paving the way for an energy future based on plants instead of hydrogen.

During the month of September, EV World (http://www.evworld.com), the Internet's leading "green" transportation web portal, asked its readers if they thought a carbohydrate-based energy economy offered a cheaper, cleaner route to sustainable mobility than hydrogen. 2,138 readers responded. 53 percent (1141) answered "Yes". 27 percent ( 582) selected "No" and 19 percent (415) chose "Don't Know."

While the results of EV World surveys are not considered scientific and reflect the personal views of readers who are interested in electric-drive and other alternative fuel vehicle technologies, they do suggest that among this group, the majority believe biofuels may well be a better fuel for the future than hydrogen.

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Published weekly since 1998, EV World features original content on a wide range of topics related to advanced, alternative fuel technologies from the latest in battery, hybrid-electric and fuel cell vehicles to renewable energy progress and policy. The publication has interviewed such notables as General Wesley Clark, former CIA director James Woolsey and "The Hype About Hydrogen" author Joseph Romm. Interviews are available in text and MP3 audio format. EV refers to "electric vehicle."

While premium content is available to subscribers only, much of the site, including daily news updates and archived interviews and feature stories, are available free to all readers. EV World conducts reader polls each month, with this month's question being, "Do you believe the US presidential candidates are giving sufficient attention to the problem of peak oil and how they will address it in the next four years?"

Contact:
Bill Moore
Publisher, Editor in Chief
EV World
http://www.evworld.com
402 850 5796 (cell)
editor@evworld.com

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