In California, Governor Schwarzenegger issued Executive Order S-7-04 on April 20, establishing a California Hydrogen Highways Network. It’s been reasonably well known since the Governor took office that he would be big on environmental issues (the clue was his conversion of his Hummer to hydrogen fuel, not to mention that it was a campaign pledge), but is this too big of a leap?

Hybrid gas/electric cars are all the rage at the moment (my particular favorite is the Toyota Prius 2004, highly rated by Consumer Reports, though the Honda Civic Hybrid is also very interesting). Hydrogen, however, has some concerns, such as reliability, accessibility, and safety (specifically, some concerns I seem to remember reading about surrounding the volatility of hydrogen causing highly inconvenient explosions — I could be wrong). Oh — not to mention cost issues. In fact, there was a story by Reuters in March of last year that suggests that hybrids are far more efficient in the long run.

The Governor has taken the first step to help the infrastructure of possible hydrogen-based transportation; the question in my mind: is this a waste of time and money?