Several million spread across a handful of projects may seem like small potatoes compared to other federal financing worth hundreds of millions, but Alex Cool-Fergus, Climate Action Network Canada’s national policy manager, is frustrated to see the federal government pump any money into the hydrogen sector. In an interview with Canada’s National Observer she called hydrogen an improbable “techno-fix” that has been effectively marketed by the fossil fuel industry.
The possible end uses for hydrogen are dwindling, which is eroding its forecasted demand. To put in perspective just how significant this is, four years ago Natural Resources Canada expected the global market could be worth up to $11.7 trillion, but now says it could be worth up to $1.9 trillion — an 84 per cent drop.
“It’s disappointing to see that the federal government continues to invest in this false solution, and that disappointment is amplified by the fact that some of this money is going to massive companies that don’t need any more money,” she said, calling it a “slap in the face.”
“If [fossil fuel companies are] going to be investing in this at all, they should be using their own profits.” Last year, Enbridge posted $5.8 billion in profit and greenlit $10 billion worth of new projects.
Hydrogen was never anything more than a stopgap for people who were scared of charging for 20 min rather than spending 3 min filling it with fossil fuel.
I’m fortunate enough to have home charging and electric serves us just fine and has never let us down once. Road trips need a bit more planning but nothing significant and we only do those every few years so…
20 minutes if you have an electric car that takes that long AND you don’t charge at home . The newer cars will be able to charge much faster soon enough, chargers permitting.
Yup. The fossil fuel crowd sponsored by by oil always trotts out an edge case of someone who commutes daily 200 miles each way in the winter to scare people. But it’s a total BS scare tactic that probably impacts one person in a million.
The rest are better off on electric. Once they try they’ll never go back.