John W. Olver: “Mr. Chairman, I rise in general support of H.R. 655. As a scientist I support hydrogen research, and one of the last…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in general support of H.R. 655. As a scientist I support hydrogen research, and one of the last research programs I worked on in my academic career was in fact a hydrogen fuel cell research program, and it was one of the most promising ways to utilize hydrogen as a fuel. The distinguished chairman of the committee claims that the Hydrogen Technical Advisory Panel has recommended more spending than is even included in H.R. 655, and indeed the distinguished chairman is correct if we include the demonstration projects that the HTAP believers should be done, but the distinguished chairman has opposed the inclusion of those demonstration projects and in fact they are not included in the legislation. Under those circumstances, I wonder why we would be offering funding or defending funding as high as would include those demonstration projects. As an aside, I would say I believe we ought to be authorizing demonstration projects as proposed by the HTAP, but they are not included in the legislation and we should not be authorizing funding for them.”