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www.CleanEnergyFacts.com News - Count on the Congress of the United States to close the gate after the horse has left the barn. With climate change (aka global warming) not only in your face, but your backyard, front yard, living room and kitchen, assuming your coastal house is still standing, the 109th Congress is considering the H-Prize Act of 2006, an X-Prize like competition to create incentives for innovation in hydrogen transportation and stationary technologies.

The prize and idea are great but long overdue. This should have been law for the past 20 years. If it were, the climate would likely still be warmer but our air cleaner, importation of crude oil lower and geopolitics considerably more civil.

The wallets of the Bush and Cheney families would be thinner of course, as would those of the players in OPEC and the major oil companies. Thankfully, the congressional staffers who drafted the H-Prize Act seem to have been well informed and reasonably bright. Or perhaps I'm just being optimistic.

The proposed law (it is not yet agreed by the Senate nor signed by the Shrub) is somewhat application neutral instead of being car-centric as so many past incentive programs (grants) have been.

The bill directs the Secretary of Energy (Department of Energy) to establish prizes in: hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen distribution, hydrogen utilization, prototypes of hydrogen-powered "vehicles" (not automobiles!) and so-called transformational technologies that meet or exceed far-reaching objective criteria.

Well, let's see what the Senate does to this effort and if the oil baron in the White House signs on the dotted line. Or at least marks it with his "X."

To read some of the official text from the prize categories section of the legislative language approved by the House (and sent off to the Senate for conference committee mutilation) visit www.CleanEnergyFacts.com for this alternative energy news and other resources.

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