[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 105 (Monday, July 29, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1411-E1412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUTURE INFRASTRUCTURE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. DON YOUNG

                               of alaska

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 26, 2002

  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, The House Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee, which I chair, is conducting a series of fact 
finding hearings as we prepare to reauthorize the Nation's highway and 
mass transit programs next year.
  Surface transportation and the immense infrastructure that supports 
our Nation's transportation system extends to every corner of this 
country and every Member's district. That is why we are now examining 
the effectiveness and funding needs of existing programs, as well as 
the need for any new direction that the infrastructure of our country 
may need into the future.
  I have said many times that I am concerned about the state of the 
Nation's infrastructure. This concern is shared by many members of my 
committee.
  The hearings underway in the Transportation and Infrastructure 
Committee are serving to highlight the need for a modern, effective 
transportation infrastructure. Our economic health depends upon our 
roadways and transportation infrastructure. To ignore the physical 
state of these systems is to invite disruption that could have enormous 
economic consequences to this country.

[[Page E1412]]

  While we examine our highway programs, we will also review mass 
transit programs and other programs to address and avoid congestion as 
well as new technology that might enable us to become more efficient 
and to improve the transport of people and goods.
  During the process of reviewing the infrastructure needs of the 
Nation and the role of highway and mass transit programs, it is my 
intention to invite comments on the future benefits and needs for the 
hydrogen option in our transportation system.
  We may be years away from actually employing fleets of, vehicles 
fueled by hydrogen but we owe it to ourselves to determine how this 
important new fuel source can be integrated along our transportation 
infrastructure. Just think of the different dynamic we would face in 
the Middle East if our transportation system were equipped with 
hydrogen vehicles and refueling stations based upon hydrogen.
  Nearly fifty years ago, during the Presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, 
the Nation embarked upon the construction of the federal interstate 
highway system. Today, after thousands of miles of highways have been 
constructed and billions of dollars expended, we have an interstate 
highway system that is the envy of the world.
  We have a transportation network, five decades in the making, that is 
the lifeline upon which commerce flows. That system required enormous 
and sustained federal support as well as cooperation with state and 
local governments and agencies and the ideas, innovation and hard work 
of hundreds of thousands of people from the private sector.
  Many of the improvements we take for granted today took decades to 
design, improve and construct. I believe it is time to begin work on an 
effort that may become just as important as that of President 
Eisenhower, an effort to use hydrogen as a key component of our 
transportation base. I believe it is time for us to realize that our 
future surface transportation system may well be fueled using hydrogen, 
so we must begin the planning and thinking now.
  We are at the question stage of this process. While I am not saying 
we are ready to set a final course of action to install hydrogen fuel 
infrastructure, I do believe that hydrogen can become the key part of 
the nation's future transportation system. As Chairman of the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I believe that we should 
undertake a process, in the reauthorization of our highway programs, to 
study the feasibility of hydrogen infrastructure in the future.
  This process will allow us to question timing and to ask if such a 
transformation is feasible, is real, is viable, is cost efficient and 
is in the Nation's best interest. Because our bill will authorize the 
highway program for at least six years, it is important that we not 
miss this window of opportunity to ask these questions and possibly, to 
initiate actions that will expedite any transformation process.
  The automobile industry and President Bush have announced an 
initiative known as Freedom CAR, an industry and government research 
and development program to develop fuel cell vehicles as well as needed 
R&D relating to the hydrogen fuel that will power these vehicles.
  We already know a great deal about fuel cells and we already know a 
great deal about the production of hydrogen. But, we clearly do not 
know enough. The effort of the private industry and the Administration 
to develop these sources of fuel can be assisted by the review and 
development of a meaningful infrastructure system to refuel these 
vehicles.
  Industry and government researchers alike have asserted that a 
focused infrastructure development program likely will garner the 
confidence needed to produce the vehicles. As we develop the confidence 
to proceed it also will be necessary to commit to the production of a 
sufficient number of vehicles for widespread demonstration. Thereafter 
we would be positioned to move forward towards the manufacture of 
thousands and then millions of such vehicles.
  During each of these stages, a meaningful and effective refueling 
hydrogen infrastructure will be needed. We should avoid a chicken and 
egg problem: What comes first the vehicle or the fueling 
infrastructure? Will the vehicles be produced if the infrastructure is 
not readily available? Will the infrastructure be made available if the 
vehicles are not forthcoming?
  The infrastructure should be developed in parallel with the vehicles. 
Consumers are unlikely to buy fuel cell vehicles over traditional 
vehicles unless the hydrogen fuel is available. We may never see the 
mass production of fuel cell vehicles, even after they are technically 
proven, unless the fueling infrastructure is in place.
  We are fighting a war on terrorism that is precipitated, in part, by 
our country's dependence upon foreign supplies of crude oil. The lives 
of our military personnel are at risk every day. As long as we continue 
dependence upon foreign sources of oil we will face war and an enormous 
human and economic toll that is placed upon our society and economy. If 
we do nothing, our dependency on foreign oil is projected to grow from 
fifty percent today to more than 60 percent by 2020. That dependency 
has grown already from 35 percent in the mid-1970's when we first 
confronted war over oil in the Middle East.
  Congress is facing a question that will partially ease the dependence 
on foreign oil sources as it conferences the energy bill. In the House, 
we say we should allow exploration and development of a fringe area of 
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in my state. I passionately believe 
that this is vital right now. The answer to oil dependency is a 
sensible U.S. domestic oil production in ANWR, as well as looking for 
other solutions that will ease the problem in years to come.
  We need to develop all possible sources of energy to insure that our 
country has a diversity of energy sources available. Hydrogen, the most 
abundant element in the universe is a source of energy that should be 
developed for application in the long term. It can be derived from 
gasoline, natural gas, methanol, renewables, even water. Someday, like 
electricity today, hydrogen could become a type of energy used in daily 
transportation and as a source of fuel for electricity generation to 
power homes, business and industry.
  Now is the time to begin a serious investigation that looks beyond a 
successful research and development program. We need to consider the 
need to begin our public and private efforts now to create an 
infrastructure to serve and fuel a transportation system based in part 
upon fuel cell vehicles and the need for hydrogen.
  I do not know if there will be success or failure of these efforts to 
perfect the technology but I think it wise to consider those actions we 
can take. Our design should be to encourage and maintain momentum 
towards adoption of a new form of transportation based not entirely 
upon fossil fuels from other lands. We need to begin a process to 
determine government's proper role in this effort that may be as 
technically challenging as the Apollo program and as important as the 
Interstate Highway System.
  Regardless of the energy source that propels our vehicles, now or in 
the future, we must also ensure that it pays its fair share to the 
Highway Trust Fund, if we are to maintain a user fee based system to 
invest in our transportation infrastructure.
  The reauthorization effort should examine where we are, what needs to 
be done, what resources will be required, and what partnerships need to 
be encouraged if we are to add hydrogen as a cornerstone of our 
transportation sector in a timely manner. The Subcommittee Chairman, 
Mr. Petri, and Ranking Member, Mr. Borski, can get the perspectives of 
all relevant sectors on this issue and address them in the 
reauthorization bill. I expect to be actively involved in this effort 
as well.

                          ____________________