Big Oil and the H2 economy

I wrote earlier about coal gasification generating pure hydrogen in the last step. since this represents a lot of hydrogen, it could be a good thing for the energy economy. clearly storing it is the next obvious hurdle. chrysler owns a company called milennium inc. that has shown that hydrogen can be stored in an emulsification of sodium borohydride, and retrieved using a ruthinium catylst. the liquid form is inert, and can be transported without pressurization, or pumped through a pipeline. clearly a valid first move to make is: make china clean up its act; sell them clean coal and make them jump through all the hoops. in fact that would probably solve a pollution problem if they are amenable. however, in the long game the result of that strategy is to keep America addicted to oil, only to stumble spectacularly when oil runs out. if we cede china the oil, and actually make the adjusment Stateside, we end up sitting pretty when oil runs out, while china stumbles spectacularly. oil burns cleaner than coal, so the pollution problem does not go un-addressed. the way to make it work, is to sell the idea, not to Detroit, but to Big OIL. if big oil buys up all the coal strips, they don't care which way they make their money - selling oil or selling coal. they don't care who they sell which to... coal to the US, and oil to china is fine with them. absent financial inducement on the part of big oil, Detroit will certainly provide fuel cell cars for the market - they advertize them nearly every year. how do you introduce the fuel cell to the market? build houses with fuel cells in them at the next housing boom. this migrates us away from the inefficiencies of a power grid, as well as taking away the grid as a piracy (terrorist) target. as gasoline cars wear out, people will be willing to buy a fuel cell car that they can re-fuel at home, and this will provide a growing demand for hydrogen as supply capabilities improve. meanwhile, the houses provide a stable market during the initial growth period. as i have said before, fuel cells in houses represent an excellent solution to flood damage and damage to the grid from wind and flying objects in coastal areas subject to hurricane damage. as far as delivery of the fuel, you can truck it around like ozarka to start with, and then deliver it like heating oil up north. these delivery trucks would probably run on soy-bio diesel, as would agro vehicles. anything that already has a diesel engine could run bio-diesel, and get better gas mileage while they do it. Corn ethanol does not get as good mileage as gasoline, and defers the introduction of fuel cell vehicles, but the Iowa Corn subsidy has a life of its own, so I wouldn't try to get any sensible politician to oppose it. fuel cells are know to have difficulties with ice crytals punturing the membrane at sub-zero temperatures. this problem has been solved by the military who have put up a drone that flies all week long over 60,000 feet up on one fuelling. presumably the solution that works on the drone will work at ground level. i have painted a picture of where the hydrogen is to come from, and how it is to be stored and transported. we have seen how it is to be introduced into the economy so completely that a treehugger would be needed to find an objection. the oil companies are to lose no money or influence, mearly shift their markets. Detroit is to be induced to provide the hardware without objection by big oil, and Iowa Corn subsidies are to be replaced by Iowa Soy subsidies. domestic oil is held for aviation and the war machine. tell me it's not a pretty utopian suggestion! now all i have to do is to get the Government to stagger the construction of nuclear reactors so that they can be re-built as they wear out, and i'll feel like i've really done something.