About Quarter-Billion-Plus for Hydrogen & Fuel Cells in Mammoth 2005 Omnibus Bill

WASHINGTON, DC - The mammoth fiscal year 2005 omnibus appropriations bill rushed through Congress last month includes about $264 million for hydrogen and fuel cells, an early rapid check of the bill indicates, but these numbers are subject to refinement and confirmation.

Part of the reason for this uncertainty is the sheer size of the kitchen-sink, one-size-fits-all document: 1,689 pages, $388.4 billion covering most federal departments: Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-State, Energy and Water, Foreign Operations, Interior, Labor/Health Human Services/Education, Legislative, Transportation/Treasury to Veterans Administration/Housing and Urban Development.

At the time of writing, the bill had not been signed as yet by President Bush, but it’s apparently a non-issue: Most observers expect him to sign.

Here are some early numbers that have been plucked from the document, courtesy of the U.S. Fuel Cell Council. More details and comparisons to previous funding legislation will have to come later:

• Totals, fuel cells and hydrogen:
• $264.4 million, including $9 million for the Nuclear Hydrogen initiative;
• $21 million, Office of Science (subject to confirmation).
• Interior Department/ Power generation:
• $5.1 million, Vision 21 Hybrids;
• $3 million, Systems Development;
• $5.5 million, SECA.
• Interior Department/Vehicles/PEM:
• $76 million, Fuel Cell Technologies (EERE);
• $95.3 million, Hydrogen (With about $37.7 million earmarked as follows:
• $2 million, Fuel Cell Mine Loader and Prototype Locomotive;
• $1 million, Hawaii Hydrogen Center for Development and Deployment of Distributed Energy Systems;
• $5 million, UNLV renewable hydrogen fueling station;
• $1 million, Zero Emission Bus demo;
• $1 million, H2 FC project for Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, NV;
• $1.1 million, Ohio Distributed Hydrogen Project;
• $2 million, Hydrogen Regional Infrastructure Program;
• $2 million, Univ. of South Carolina Clean Energy Research program;
• $1 million, University of Toledo/Bowling Green Fuel Cell Research project;
• $5 million, California Hydrogen Infrastructure Project;
• $1 million, Validation efforts for the Lake Tahoe Basin;
• $500,000, Startech Plasma Conversion Technology;
• $3 million, fuel cell research at University of South Florida;
• $3 million, Edison Materials Technology Center;
• $2 million, Florida Hydrogen Initiative;
• $5 million, Competitive solicitation for SOFC research (under a cost-shared program).

Also, the Advanced Technology Program includes $10 - $20 million for fuel cells. Contact/Source: U.S. Fuel Cell Council, www.usfcc.com.