colorless, odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid...

What a stroke of luck! If you have one of GM's six hydrogen-powered minivans in DC, you can now fuel your vehicle! It's about time, actually - there has been a small fleet of hydrogen-fueled BMW's in Munich for five years now (theirs are even cooler, though: first of all, they're BMW's, and second, the gas station is so automated that the driver never leaves the car while the robotic hydrogen pump does all the work). So it's exciting to see something happenning in this country, and it's simultaneously surprising and encouraging that this project is being pushed by an oil company and a big-3 automaker. But is it all just a PR stunt? Is it going to get Shell and GM good press for a while and then die a quiet death when people have forgotten about it? The news item declaring the end of the experiment three years from now is all too easy to envision. There are huge environmental problems with hydrogen production, too, that would have to be worked out before we could all start driving steam-spitting cars. They talk about mass consumption beginning sometime between 2015 and 2025. If we had a bold leader with a (necessary) bold environmental vision who wanted to give this thing a kick-start, then maybe. But as we obviously don't, I'll believe it when I see it.