Regardless of whether its in the book, how can you be certain alternative fuels could never be economically viable?
My motivation is energy independence where the US never has to rely on another country for energy plus fossil fuels will run out some day. There are plenty of good, logical reasons to get off fossil fuels or significantly improve how far we can stretch them.
Hydrogen fuel cells are already in production and while the cost of hydrogen here in the US is currently too high, in Germany where they have made a bigger commitment to this technology the price of hydrogen is about 1/3 of the cost here in the US where only California have made a commitment.
This tech is just getting off the ground. Some hurdles have to be overcome just like the problems with electric vehicles had to be over come.
FCEV, or fuel cell electric vehicles have a couple of advantages over plug in EVs. For one thing, filling the hydrogen tanks takes about the same amount of time as filling up a IC vehicle gas tank. Also, FCEVs go farther on a tank of hydrogen than a current EV goes on a single charge.
The disadvantages are there are only 40 hydrogen filling stations in the US, and hydrogen costs about $14/lb. An FCEV gets about 28 miles per lb. of hydrogen. In Germany, H2 costs about $4.80 per lb.
The problem I see with H2 though is "The Hindenburg". H2 is highly flammable in an oxygen rich environment. Small fender benders can result in major explosions if the hydrogen tank is ruptured. Likewise, tank trucks delivering H2 to filling stations will become more numerous on our highways and could also result in some major accidents. Even if these incidents are rare there is the psychological effect. I am still interested in seeing this technology move forward but my eyes are wide open.