June 18, 2008 1:25PM 

# Hydrogen Car Hooey 

By [Jerry Taylor](https://www.cato.org/people/jerry-taylor) 

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One of my pricier trade newsletters, *Greenwire*, reports today that Honda is manufacturing a “zero emission” vehicle. Their source? A story in today’s *New York Times* which [spills a great deal of ink ](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/business/worldbusiness/17fuelcell.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1213809289-vyVvHjQZemJC9yVk/TQBwA)on the environmental promise of these sorts of vehicles. Well, nonsense. The hydrogen has to come from somewhere, and the emissions associated with producing that hydrogen are far from zero. In fact, hydrogen-powered vehicles are, on balance, [even dirtier ](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2608)than conventional internal combustion engines.

Next time you see Jamie Lee Curtis tooling around in one of these things, tell her to buy some carbon credits. A lot of them.

##### Related Tags 

[Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [General](https://www.cato.org/general) 

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