August 23rd, 2010
Is Secretary Chu the Biggest Bust of the Obama Administration?
When we at the ebTDesign Forum started to point out the obvious short comings of Secretary Chu’s decision not to support hydrogen convergence, there was a huge outcry about how smart he was. People, who would become loyal readers and social media followers, would tell us that he wouldn’t make such an egregious mistake.
Now the comments that we are receiving have completely changed. They tell us what a disappointment he has become. They say that they expected more from the Obama Administration. From where we sit this may have started with the Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen. The Obama team performed so poorly that they may have soured the entire environmental community on their efforts.
What do you think about Secretary Chu’s performance? Has he earned the privilege to continue to serve in his position after the mid-term elections? How much responsibility does he directly deserve for American disbelief in Global Warming? Even though, we are seeing signs of climate instability here in Washington DC and in Northern Illinois where my in laws live and Nashville, Tennessee at the Grand Ole Opry.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: Chu, Copenhagen, hydrogen, ObamaAugust 22nd, 2010
Should we cut Obama Team some slack for Environmental Missteps?
The Obama Administration not only deserves the criticism they receive from environmental groups they actually court it. Secretary Chu didn’t have to attack hydrogen convergence. Once Congress restored 2010 hydrogen research funding, they could have played nice instead of trying to cut it again in the 2011 budget.
The President went to Ohio last week and failed to recognize the advances in hydrogen fuel cell innovation. Even though, the state has invested heavily in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. It takes courage to speak truth to power. However, the Obama team needs to hear it before it’s too late.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: fuel cell, hydrogen, Obama, OhioAugust 10th, 2010
Gulf Oil Disaster: Now the Green Washing Accelerates
From almost the beginning, it appeared that opposition to hydrogen convergence would be the real environmental legacy of the Obama Administration. Now it seems that the current administration will be known most for it’s willingness to green wash the effects of the Gulf Oil Disaster.
Our loyal readers and social media followers don’t need to be reminded that just before the oil started erupting from the sea floor, the Obama Administration wanted to increase the amount of deep sea drilling. Now that the most visible examples of this catastrophe have been hidden, the confounders appear poised to renew their efforts.
The Obama Administration is in route to giving a new meaning to the phrase “out of sight, out of mind.” The bigger question is why haven’t we heard more from the cleantech industry? Besides playing the victim card due to reduced availability of government subsidies there has been very little organized opposition to the Administration’s green washing efforts.
Where are the cleantech revolutionaries? Why haven’t they taken to the airwaves in support of hydrogen convergence? The time is now to counter the confounders at the Department of Energy and end the practice of pitting one cleantech solution against another. Otherwise, the United States will be environmentally a very different place for future generations.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: green washing, hydrogen, ObamaJuly 13th, 2010
Concerned about Competitiveness in Hydrogen Convergence?
How important is it for the United States to remain competitive when comes to hydrogen convergence? Not only are other countries starting to see the benefits of hydrogen convergence. But now whole regions are ceasing the opportunity. It’s almost as if they sense blood in the water.
The actions of the Department of Energy (DOE) exposed a gaping vulnerability in the American economic system. By not leading the hydrogen convergence movement, the Obama Administration has shown a willingness to gamble on the belief that future generations will have the resources to catch up.
The great equalizer is the practice of angle investment. Ohio has overtaken California as the startup capital of the United States or will do so in the not too distant future. Couple angel investments with a sovereign growth fund and you have a potent dinosaur killer. And, angel groups are springing up all over the world.
If hydrogen convergence is the next long wave, shouldn’t the DOE and the rest of the Obama Administration be more concerned about the economic benefits that the next two or three generations may lose. We at the ebTDesign Forum would advise readers that societies don’t decline because of assess to necessary resources but rather because of an unwillingness to adapt and compete.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: dinosaur killer, DOE, hydrogen, Obama, OhioJuly 1st, 2010
Hydrogen Convergence can’t rely on Government for Commercialization
Many well known hydrogen advocates stress the need for government funding to drive hydrogen convergence. We at the ebTDesign Forum disagree and would suggest that now is the time that the United States Government gets out of the way. The Internet would not be the success that it is today if the Federal Government had continued to manage its growth.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) turned the Internet over to the National Science Foundation (NFS) for commercialization. We would advise the Department of Energy (DOE) to do the same for hydrogen convergence. With all the challenges associated with managing the nation’s fossil fuel supply, another government organization needs to be tasked with commercializing hydrogen infrastructure.
If the DOE can’t bear to have another agency playing its sandbox then it should task a specific program like ARPA-E to promote licensing and make commercialization decisions. The clock is ticking and everyday that the United States goes without a strategy for ending dependence on foreign oil reduces our standing in the post-Globalization marketplace. Hopefully, this will not be the true legacy of the Obama Administration.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: ARPA-E, DOE, hydrogen, NSF, ObamaMay 27th, 2010
More signs of Hydrogen Convergence thaw at DOE, Excluding Infrastructure
The Department of Energy (DOE) is holding a fuel cell bus workshop on June 7th, 2010. This workshop will cover everything associated with the development and deployment of fuel cell buses except for infrastructure. However, we at the ebTDesign Forum would caution our readers and social media followers against undue optimism.
Of late, the DOE has been actively soliciting project ideas for the development of fuel cells that run on fossil fuel. Last year, the confounders at the DOE introduced the strategy of removing hydrogen from the name of all fuel cell related programs. The United States Congress stopped them through the appropriation process.
This year the confounders have redoubled their efforts. It was very telling that in President Obama’s Memorandum Regarding Fuel Efficiency Standards there was no mention of hydrogen. Community leaders and industry pioneers would be well-advised to view this tactic by the DOE as more of a misdirection rather than a dinosaur attack. When the DOE starts talking about the challenges of deploying hydrogen infrastructure then we’ll know that they are serious about hydrogen convergence.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: bus, DOE, fuel cell, hydrogen, misdirection, ObamaMay 25th, 2010
Obama Administration Warming to Hydrogen Convergence?
President Barack Obama recently issued a Presidential Memorandum Regarding Fuel Efficiency Standards. This policy statement comes in the aftermath of the greatest manmade environmental disaster in United States History. Some would suggest that because of the oil spill support for hydrogen convergence is thawing at the White House.
We at the ebTDesign Forum would like to ask, “Does this mean that President Obama has lost faith in the confounders at the Department of Energy?” All we know for sure is that the conversation on the surface is changing. We have to ask is this enough to change the behavior at the DOE, DOT, and/or the EPA which will lead to active support for hydrogen convergence?
Anyone who has worked in the Federal Government knows that simply putting out a policy statement is not enough to change actions within any Federal Agency. Government employees are often resistant to any strategic change. They are very tactical and slow to react because of the constantly shifting political environment. This is just a function of self-preservation.
Unless there are accompanying personnel changes, there is very little hope for any substantial success. In a politically charged environment where creativity and personal initiative have been bred out, it is completely nonsensical to think that change will happen without the addition of new people. We at the ebTDesign Forum would suggest that it has been the reluctance to make personnel changes which have led directly to the current environmental challenges.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: DOE, DOT, EPA, hydrogen, ObamaFebruary 19th, 2010
How Hydrogen Convergence will obsolete Nuclear Power
There has been a lot buzz surrounding President Barack Obama’s decision to fund new nuclear power plants. Many in the environmental community have become very disheartened at this news. We at the ebTDesign Forum would advise our readers and twitter followers that these new nuclear plants will never be completed because of massively-distributed power generation.
Just before the start of the dotcom era there was a movement to large supercomputers. However with the introduction of massively-parallel grid computing enabled by the Internet, the supercomputer became obsolete overnight. Similarly, a hydrogen convergence “feedback loop” will enable the deployment of massively-distributed power generation. This will obsolete the nuclear power industry, overnight.
The decision to fund nuclear power is a classic example of why supply-side economics doesn’t work any more. From a P2P Economy viewpoint this doesn’t make any sense. Working and middle class Americans are not going to want to raise their children next nuclear waste dumps. The flexibility of massively-distributed power generation and the incremental cost advantage will make investments in nuclear power for other than military purposes nonsensical.
Post-Globalization, we live in an era of more direct democracy. Once working and middle class Americans are presented with a P2P Economy sensitive solution based on hydrogen convergence, there will be numerous ballet initiatives that will outlaw the storage of new nuclear waste and the building of nuclear power plants. Overnight, the nuclear power era will finally come to an end.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: feedback loop, hydrogen, MDPG, Obama, post-GlobalizationFebruary 5th, 2010
Why has NASA failed to Answer Call for Hydrogen Convergence?
There is a global competition going on to produce the first commercial hydrogen fuel cell aircraft. Examples of it can be seen on the Hydrogen Convergence YouTube channel. Unfortunately, NASA has not publicly entered the fray. NASA is by far the biggest consumer of hydrogen and hydrogen technology in the United States but it has not devoted any resources to help maintain America’s competitiveness.
Today Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 fame shed some light on the delay. In a Huffington Post article, Mr. Aldrin described the colossal system failure which has left the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a shell of its former self. Working and middle class Americans will not be shocked to hear the story of one more ponzi scheme that has robbed them of yet another critical asset.
President Barack Obama in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget has increased substantially funding for Earth Sciences Programs. However, President Obama has done nothing to help the United States remain competitive in the race to develop the first commercial hydrogen fuel cell aircraft. This task has been left to service members in the Air Force and Navy to handle with monies they’ve scrounged.
The plight of America’s Aviation Industry cannot be blamed on the Department of Energy. It can’t be dismissed as just another example of Secretary Chu not believing in hydrogen convergence. This actually points to a much bigger concern that was voiced by Frank Borman, another NASA pioneer, in a different time when he spoke of a “failure of imagination.”
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: Air Force, aviation, hydrogen, NASA, Navy, ObamaFebruary 3rd, 2010
Hydrogen Convergence of Obama’s Plans for NASA
We at the ebTDesign Forum enthusiastically support President Barack Obama’s plans for NASA as long at they include funding for hydrogen convergence at airports. If the funding will only support the development of “spaceports” then it will be just another step toward a very slippery slope that disenfranchises small town Americans. We see airport improvement as an additional challenge NASA must address in order to fully realize commercial space flight.
National policy is most effective when it takes into account regional differences. Any plan that only benefits coastal states ignores the economic reality of lack luster job growth which confronts the nation as a whole. Unless, we can hold the center of the country and not abandon it to outside interests, then the working and middle class will never recover.
As we discussed in yesterday’s blog segment, airports enable lifestyle choices that greatly benefit hometown communities. They allow small town sea turtles to return to the communities they grew up in without giving up the face time required for establishing and growing business relationships. These are the same relationships that can be invaluable to the overall health and welfare of rural regions.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke of President Obama’s desire to enhance the focus on commercial partnerships. We at the ebTDesign Forum would also like to remind Administrator Bolden of NASA’s other middle name which is Aeronautics. Any NASA plan that does not include at least some programs like hydrogen convergence which benefit aviation and airport systems does not live up to the historic spirit of this storied organization.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: airports, hydrogen, NASA, Obama, sea turtlesDecember 2nd, 2009
Can Hydrogen Convergence save Americans from “Real” Old Jobs?
Many readers of the ebTDesign Forum and twitter followers get nervous when they hear phrases like “Real Jobs Summit.” They become concerned that this is code for advocating the protection of “really” old jobs and impeding the process of creative destruction. They know of the disastrous effect this strategy has had on the United States Steel Industry.
Starting with the introduction of mini-mills, the United States has sought to protect the jobs of those at integrated steel mill factories. The majority of members in the United States Congress have sat ideally by while new competitive steel mill jobs have gone overseas. Now, the Obama Administration is attempting to protect the coal and oil industry from hydrogen convergence. This is happening via over-investment in electric vehicles.
Lobbyists for big coal and their industry experts know that funding electrical vehicle (EV) research is an indirect way of subsidizing demand for coal-fired power plants. They understand that switching to batteries will effectively “move the tail pipe” without requiring electric utilities to make any changes to their current operations. The oil industry benefits because EV range and payload limitations will hamper efforts to reduce gasoline consumption and increase profits on their dwindling supplies.
More American jobs will be lost as the rest of the world actively embraces hydrogen convergence. The only consensus that this year’s climate change debate has produced is that any legislation must contain a strategy for increasing job growth for the working and middle class Americans. As readers of the ebTDesign Forum and twitter followers, you know that the only energy option that does this is hydrogen convergence.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: big coal, EV, hydrogen, Obama, oil industryDecember 1st, 2009
Addressing Hydrogen Convergence in the Context of the Jobs Summit
This week has already been eventful because of the COP-15 Bridge Event in Copenhagen and it’s only Tuesday. However, the biggest opportunity to promote hydrogen convergence will occur on Thursday at President Obama’s Jobs Summit. After months of building a case for early investment in hydrogen convergence, President Obama’s Jobs Summit will provide the best platform yet to discuss it.
Even though there may not be any live tweeting from participants inside the Jobs Summit. There has been a lot of chatter on twitter which provides a huge opportunity to promote the job creation benefits of hydrogen convergence to working and middle class Americans. When it’s all said and done, hydrogen convergence provides the most comprehensive way of jump starting Green Technology Industries.
No matter how many bright ideas are presented at President Obama’s Jobs Summit, America will not be return to sustainable growth until the energy problem is solved. As long as the United States is sending vast sums of money overseas to purchase Oil there will be no job security or meaningful business investment. Hydrogen Convergence provides the only multithreaded solution for job creation, as readers of the ebTDesign Forum and twitter followers know.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: COP-15, hydrogen, jobs, ObamaNovember 18th, 2009
Will Obama Take Action to Anticipate Hydrogen Convergence in 2012?
President Barack Obama is being blamed for killing the Copenhagen Climate Change Talks. We at the ebTDesign Forum would suggest the problem was that the talks were headed in the wrong direction. World leaders could easily save face by announcing their intention to ratify a treaty based on hydrogen convergence by the end of 2012.
This would reinvigorate the Green Revolution and jump start job creation. No consensus can be built around a call for conservation and self-sacrifice. Regional trading blocks will claim that one group is being impacted more than another. Emerging economies will ask for concessions so that they can achieve industrialized status. Industrialized countries will proclaim injury due to increased job loss because of stricter environment standards.
The United States is already falling behind countries like Germany, Japan and the UK. While lawmakers and many transnational media companies question the value of hydrogen convergence. Government and private partnerships in other countries are transforming their economies and protecting their citizens from the uncertainty caused by the potential of future energy shocks.
This summer during the debate on restoring funding for hydrogen convergence research, we started to hear rumors that automakers will start limited production of hydrogen cars by 2012. Car companies need at least two to three years to shake the bugs out of their manufacturing processes. We would suggest that the die is cast for at the very least an increase in the number of hydrogen infrastructure pilot projects.
President Obama could provide much needed leadership at the multi-lateral level by endorsing a hydrogen convergence transition plan. This would announce that the United States would no longer be willing to follow when comes to taking action on climate change. Mr. President the American people have been waiting far too long for some resemblance of a clean secure energy future.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: 2012, automakers, hydrogen, ObamaAugust 11th, 2009
Explaining President Obama’s Stance on Hydrogen Convergence
The biggest losers, in this debate about the role of imported socialist controlled lithium, are the Obama supporters who worked so hard to get Senator Barack Obama elected president. They will have to explain why President Obama changed his mind on hydrogen convergence and the potential benefits of making every community an energy producer.
The Obama supporters put their lives on hold for almost two years as they created the grass roots ground swell that swept President Obama into the White House and increased the Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress. These are the people who are hung out to dry.
It was painful to watch Governor Jennifer Granholm try to explain why Asian battery technology was a bad thing but imported socialist controlled lithium was a good thing. Governor Granholm said if “we just transplant our reliance on foreign oil for reliance on foreign batteries, we would not achieve real energy independence.”
The American people, and especially the Obama supporters, cannot afford to sit ideally by and watch the Secretary of Energy create another quasi-Government monopoly based on imported socialist controlled lithium. We urge you to write Congress and request more funds to support hydrogen integration and lay the foundation for real energy independence.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: Granholm, hydrogen, lithium, ObamaAugust 10th, 2009
American Hydrogen Convergence versus Socialist Controlled Lithium
There are some who see President Barack Obama’s investment in battery technology last week as a means of forcing the United States Economy to increase its dependence on imported socialist lithium. They don’t understand why an administration that is so keen on keeping Americans informed would abandon or at least go silent on their hydrogen convergence efforts unless there was some form of foreign collusion.
The Obama administration has gone out its way to exercise smart power in foreign policy. We at the ebTDesign Forum would suggest they use some of the collaboration strategies that are working overseas to build domestic coalitions to advance American hydrogen convergence. We would implore the Obama administration to show the same transparency in hydrogen infrastructure planning as it has shown in its other economic governance tasks.
There are people who think that the fix is in and that President Obama is colluding with socialist dictators in South America to place the United States Economy under socialist lithium control. This observation will be further strengthened by the report released by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Academy of Engineering (NAE) that says there is an urgent need to deploy a mix of energy technology infrastructure not just lithium battery.
We at the ebTDesign Forum would suggest that the collusion, if there is any, may be a little closer to home. The Depart of Energy (DOE) may be succumbing to the lobbying efforts of big-coal. Pushing the hydrogen convergence window out two or three decades would greatly benefit the clean-coal industry. Either way, the big losers in this imported socialist lithium debate is the American people.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: big coal, hydrogen, lithium, Obama, Smart PowerJuly 29th, 2009
Does Hydrogen Convergence need a Mustang?
With the renewed buzz for Honda’s FC Sport, readers of the ebTDesign Forum and twitter followers have to ask if the tastes of the hydrogen car buying public have changed. Does America’s auto industry need a hydrogen convergence hero like the P51 Mustang that ruled the skies during World War II or the Ford Mustang SSP which “chased Porsches for a living” to compete post-Globalization.
The Mustang created an entirely new genre called the pony car. Relatively small, relatively light and often absurdly powerful, pony cars were uniquely American. [1]
The hydrogen road tour, which took place in May and June of this year, ended the conversation about the viability of hydrogen cars. Now automakers are left with the task of discovering ways of engendering a more visceral response from America’s hydrogen car buying public.
Now is the time for the introduction of a hydrogen pony car. Nothing fuels the American sense of optimism like a small, light and absurdly powerful pony car. We at the ebTDesign Forum suggest that President Obama and members of Congress augment their current “Cash for Clunkers” program with a “feed for hydrogen speed” initiative as way of encouraging hydrogen fuel cell car adoption.
[1] Mustang, the Ultimate Pony Car, Turns 45
Zachary Alexander
The IT Investment Architect®
June 15th, 2009
Commentary on Potential for United States Economic Growth
The Wall Street Journal published an article called “Federal Intervention Pits Gets vs. Get-Nots.” This article chronicles the lengths that the Obama Administration is willing go to ensure that America doesn’t suffer a double dip recession. However, the Wall Street Media has been slow to acknowledge the main challenge facing the United States Economy which is where will organic economic growth come from in the near term.
For almost a decade, the financial markets have been searching for a catalyst to lead us out of the economic wilderness. We at the ebTDesign Forum call this new concept for growth the hydrogen convergence. It implies that a new growth platform will emerge based hydrogen and the movement away fossil fuels. This means that the economic value of any one technology must be weighed against possibilities for moving the country ahead as a whole.
Post-Globalization, the potential for growth in the United States lies in its ability to create economic value with industry clusters empowerment. The last economic age was based on commodity thinking and transnational business practices. Today’s greatest potential lies with helping hometown communities navigate the many industry possibilities associated with hydrogen convergence.
Zachary Alexander
The IT Investment Architect®
June 2nd, 2009
Questioning President Obama’s Hydrogen Legacy
Many of President Barack Obama’s political opponents have been quick to write his administration’s hydrogen legacy after the DOE (Department of Energy) suggested defunding the hydrogen car programs. They have seized upon this decision and suggest that is a sign of things to come. We at the ebTDesign Forum warn that this criticism maybe premature.
A smoking gun has been found in the form of the GAO Report on the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative. This document calls in to question many of the assumptions that the DOE used to make its hydrogen car decision. In fact, the sub-title advices the DOE to update its goals regarding what it expects to achieve by 2015. If the DOE has done so, it’s hard to believe that justifications would have been found to interrupt any of the hydrogen research funding.
The one unexpected nugget of information that can be mined from the GAO report is the role the DOT (Department of Transportation) played in hampering hydrogen adoption. It would appear that the lack of hydrogen integration (e.g., refueling stations) can be attributed to under investment by the DOT. While the DOE is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lithium battery research, the DOT was only willing to spend at most $1.4 million on research into the deployment of hydrogen refueling stations.
Supporters and critics alike are reminded of the Obama Administration’s willingness to acknowledge errors in their calculations and to change course. They have also made transparency a hallmark and standing operating procedure. Once the existence of the GAO’s analysis of the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative becomes widely known, we have no doubt that the Department of Energy and the Depart of Transportation will seek to rectify the founding imbalances based on the potential for securing America’s energy future.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: DOE, DOT, GAO, hydrogen, ObamaMay 28th, 2009
Open Invitation to the Hydrogen Revolution
Many of you have been tweeting about the Hydrogen Road Tour currently taking place on the West Coast. Like the time just prior to the commercial launch of the Internet, we are poised for explosive growth in the near term. Unfortunately unlike the ARPA era funding, the Department of Energy has decided to abandon hydrogen related technologies as commercialization efforts ramp up.
We at the ebTDesign Forum would like to invite you to join us in the twitterverse as we discuss the coming Hydrogen Revolution. Many of President Barack Obama’s most ardent critics have asked the question, “What happens after the economic recovery money is spent?” Based on America’s past investments, we would suggest that a market for hydrogen related technologies will emerge.
Join us as we ask the United States Congress to make America’s energy policy whole again. During our daily chats we will make the case for restoring hydrogen research funding to levels that were originally in place earlier this year. We will comprise a hydrogen resistance that won’t let the DOE Bureaucracy undermine the work of so many in the hydrogen industry and put America’s energy future at risk.
PS: You can follow me on twitter @zalexander
Zachary Alexander
The IT Investment Architect®
April 29th, 2009
America’s First 100 Days of post-Globalization Transition
Fox has decided not to carry President Barack Obama’s news conference live. They have decided to focus on their bottom line while hometown communities continue to lose jobs and any hope of achieving the American Dream. President Obama was the first United States President elected during the post-Globalization transition. However, he is not the story. Improving the fate of working and middle class Americans as they move into the creative class is where we should be focused.
The last time we decided to behave in this manner and turn inward upon ourselves, we missed the signs that could have stopped the deaths of so many on the morning of September 11th. This is not the time to take our eyes off the ball or minds out of the game. We are in the midst of the post-Globalization transition and everyone is trying to improve the standard of living in their country.
Many developed countries will not respond to the changes this next great economic age will demand. They will pretend that the world will simply return the norms of the last economic age. We at the ebTDesign Forum would suggest that most in the United States wouldn’t want to live in one of those countries. We strongly advise working and middle class professionals to join us as we put America on a more entrepreneurial footing and create jobs in hometown communities. This is what really matters not the sideshow that politics has become.
Zachary Alexander
The IT Investment Architect®