A key climate researcher published an op-ed late last month declaring that hydrogen-powered cars are a bad idea — and a terrible way to solve the climate crisis.
Anthony Patt is a professor in Zurich, Switzerland in the department of environmental systems science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). Writing for the institute’s website, he opined that fossil fuels used in both heating and ground transportation should be replaced with renewable electricity instead — and not, he made it abundantly clear, hydrogen power.
“One of the most serious threats to all of this is masquerading as clean energy’s friend: hydrogen,” Patt wrote.
Patt’s objection is that hydrogen functions as an energy carrier, rather than an energy source, and can be created in three ways. Gray hydrogen, which is the most commonly produced, creates carbon dioxide and methane emissions, which is pretty much the opposite of eco-friendly.
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