In 2003 President George W. Bush announced the U.S. government’s hydrogen fuel initiative for safe and cheap hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.   Unfortunately the motive to move to a hydrogen-based society had nothing to do with carbon emissions or the environment.  The initiative was issued to reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources of energy.   Although there are several car manufacturers that have developed concept models and some have been demonstrated and even put into limited use, there are no fuel cell cars in mass production.  The technical and economic challenges for large-scale use of hydrogen fuel cells are enormous. The timeframe is likely to be several decades before they see the consumer market if it happens at all.  Alternatives such as the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) appear to be much more viable.  Unfortunately a great deal of money has been spent developing the hydrogen fuel cell technology and has been a distraction from other potential solutions for curbing greenhouse gases.    The consensus among experts is that there are more practical, cleaner and safer ways to reduce vehicle emissions.  Hydrogen is considered by many to be one of the most expensive and least efficient methods of tackling greenhouse gases.