Generation of science and technology: Why CA trumps WA

Remember like months ago when I wrote about the hydrogen fuel-cell cars that would hopefully be on the roads soon? (I’m sure everybody reading this does because I know everybody at BC reads my column. Right?) Well, it has officially happened and it’s great. The downside? Hyundai’s brand new hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars are only being sold in California.
By 2025, California is hoping to have 1.5 million hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles on the road. With the only emission from the car being water vapor, I am one thousand percent down for this goal. One-third of California’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from the tailpipes of their resident’s vehicles, so I think that it’s a great direction to be going.
The first U.S. customer to purchase one of these beauties was Timothy Bush, who put a down payment of $3,000 down and is paying $500 a month for the car. While that seems a bit steep for a car payment, you also have to consider that this lucky guy will no longer be paying upwards of four dollars a gallon for gas.
The one problem with the hydrogen fuel-cell cars is that the cars cost a very large lump sum to produce and there are very few fuel-cell chargers available for buyers. However, Hyundai promises that in the years to come there will be plenty more for future buyers to charge their cars at. What’s really cool is that unlike the Nissan Leaf and other electric cars, the Hyundai hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicle only takes 10 minutes to completely refuel. Did I mention a full tank has a range of 265 miles? That could get me through like a week and a half of my normal commuting. If somebody wants to donate lots and lots of money to me so I can buy one of these that would be great.
The car is an SUV build, so it’s able to handle everything that a normal car would. It’s just a lot cheaper and a lot better for the environment to drive. All in favor of Washington starting a petition to bring the fuel-celled cars here, say I.