12.03.04



Marny Skora
(Phone: 757/864-3315, 757/344-6111)

RELEASE: 04-077

TUESDAY, DEC. 7 HYDROGEN FUEL -- HOPE OR HYPE?



Every major automobile company is experimenting with hydrogen in 
internal combustion engines or testing fuel cell vehicles that rely 
on hydrogen chemistry instead of combustion. NASA uses hydrogen to 
power its rockets. Can rocket fuel really offer an alternative to 
oil?



The Bush Administration and governments around the globe are beginning 
to think so and have begun to plan a transition to a "hydrogen 
economy." Hydrogen offers enormous potential as a clean, carbon-free, 
domestically available energy option. But as the idea has taken hold, 
some critics have suggested hydrogen is more about hype than about 
hope.



Robert Rose, an internationally known fuel cell and hydrogen advocate, 
will offer his perspective at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, at NASA's 
Langley Research Center.



Media Briefing: A media briefing will be held at 1:15 p.m. at the 
H.J.E. Reid Conference Center, 14 Langley Blvd., NASA Langley 
Research Center. Members of the media who wish to attend should 
contact Marny Skora at (757) 864-3315 or 344-6111 (mobile) by 10 a.m. 
Tuesday to arrange for credentials and entry to Langley.



Rose is founding executive director of the Breakthrough Technologies 
Institute (BTI) and the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, the business 
association for the fuel cell industry. BTI is an independent 
nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting advanced environmental 
and energy technologies in the public interest. BTI's fuel cell 
education program, Fuel Cells 2000, was launched in 1993 and is 
internationally recognized. Prior to founding BTI, Rose was a private 
consultant, specializing in policy analysis and public relations.



Rose is the author of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen: The Path Forward, which 
proposes a public-private partnership to develop and commercialize 
fuel cells and a supporting hydrogen infrastructure. He is the 2004 
recipient of the Fuel Cell Seminar Award, the most prestigious 
recognition of its kind in the United States.



He also served as senior special assistant to Secretary of State 
Edmund S. Muskie. Rose earned a bachelor's degree in English and 
philosophy from the University of Nebraska in 1968.

	
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