The Urgent Realism of Radical Change

December 9, 2019 8:54 AM

The American Prospect devotes an entire issue to the Green New Deal, focusing on topics including - Getting the Carbon-Free economy - How the first New Deal remade America - The role of Public Capital - How cities can lead the way - Green Economic Development for old-industry workers - Fixing Public Works - Turning Trade Green - and more.
posted by The Whelk (2 comments total)

I get one of the old reports on de-Carboning the energy system was "make Hyrodgen for fuel cells".

But:

1) The auto makers are being seen as a dead end
2) The sudden influx of free Hydrogen isn't gonna help the Ozone layer

What might have to happen instead is less of a 24X7 economy but that seems to be seen as not-possible.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:31 PM on December 9, 2019

Concerning hydrogen, it has certainly been suggested that it was favoured by some parties with an interest in maintaining sales and minimising infrastructural change for them, compared to electrical provision. You can mix some hydrogen into natural gas pipelines (up to about 20%) with minimal changes. You can make hydrogen from fossil fuels, so you can justify keeping using fossil fuels as a 'transition' fuel while you get your other hydrogen manufacturing sorted out.

Having said that, there is potential for hydrogen to be part of a decarbonised system for heat delivery or even as part of a local energy system. In the UK both the UK Energy Research Centre and the Committee on Climate Change have emphasised the need for more research to look at this potential more closely.
posted by biffa at 6:30 AM on December 10, 2019 [1 favorite]