New Platinum Substitutes Could Make Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Electric Cars More Affordable

Two things to note about the article linked to below. First, there appear to be new breakthroughs in using a substitute for platinum in electric fuel cells. Platinum is unbelievably expensive, and its cost is the major reason why vehicles using fuel cells are expected to cost over $50,000 each. Not having to use platinum will bring the cost of electric cars down to the same price level, or even lower, as cars with internal combustion engines.

Second, note that these breakthroughs come out of the public sector - the Department of Energy, and Case Reserve University. This entirely coheres with how the U.S. economy has historically developed: with the government playing a crucial role in developing and incubating new technologies until they are ready for wide-spread commercial use which allows private profitability: a partnership between the public and private sectors to promote the general welfare through technological improvements which feed economic growth.


Examples: It was the Army Topographical Corps that opened the Louisiana Purchase and the far west to settlement by exploring and mapping out routes. It was the federal government's extensive grants of public lands that financed the trans-continental railroads, while Army engineers furnished the civil engineering needed, and Army officers provided the managerial expertise of moving large amounts of men and material over vast distances. It was the government's early support that eventually led to radio, commercial air transportation, computers, numerically controlled machine tools, and the internet. The automobile would not have been the success it has been without the "good roads" programs of the 1920s, and the Interstate Highway Program of the 1950s-1960s. It was USDA labs that made the breakthroughs that allowed commercial success of frozen foods.

Of course, this actual history is NOT in accord with the myths preferred by the "free market" fanatics of American conservatism and the Republican Party, which are trying the "starve the beast: i.e. destroy the public sector. If a partnership between the public and private sectors is what has historically driven U.S. economic progress and growth, what do you think is going to happen if conservatives and Republicans succeed?

Recent DOE Break-Through with Hydrogen Fuel Cells, should make them Affordable