June 30, 2008 11:08 pm
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To the Editor:
Mickey Hepner’s column (“A more secure future with hydrogen,”The Edmond Sun, June 27, 2008) advocating an energy economy based on hydrogen illustrates one of the largest problems we have in dealing with energy issues: technological illiteracy.
Economist Hepner characterized hydrogen as an “affordable energy source.” But hydrogen is not an energy source! It is means of storing and transporting energy produced from other sources, including fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy classifies hydrogen as an “energy carrier.”
Sorry, professor Hepner. You can’t base an energy economy on a “source” that is not a source, and thus provides no energy.
David Deming
Norman
DAVID DEMING is an associate professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oklahoma.
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