If President Obama gets his way, the 2010 federal budget will include a 60% cut in funding for hydrogen-car research (which equates to a cut of about $100 million). This cut is a direct result of the President throwing his support behind the electric plug-in vehicle. This move was apparently done because the infrastructure to support electric vehicles already exists in every home in America.

Experts estimate it will cost about $200 billion to develop the necessary nationwide infrastructure to support hydrogen powered cars, and that investment will only be able to support about 2 million vehicles (there are approximately 300 million vehicles on the road today). So the question becomes: is the investment worth it?

Obama doesn’t think so, but environmentalists do. Environmentalists argue that the hydrogen powered car is the only 100% pollution free vehicle that can be mass produced in the near future, and they caution the folks who think plug-in electric cars are the answer. Even though plug-in electrics also have the potential to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, the electricity these vehicles run on still has to come from somewhere. And right now the majority of power plants in the US use coal to create electricity. 

So the environmentalist claim it will cost just as much (but probably a whole lot more) to make the plug-in electric 100% pollution free as it would require the elimination of those coal plants in favor of clean alternatives like solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear power (although nuclear is still debatable in some circles).

It’s obviously too early to settle on the new technology winner, this is not the battle of HD DVD v/s Blu-ray after all. Luckily, many hydrogen researchers and automakers remain dedicated to their technology despite the new administration’s stance. Let’s just hope the hydrogen car has not been killed off before it was ever given a chance to succeed… can anyone say EV1?