[samtheman]

I can see some use for hydrogen. Not to produce electricity, since as you say it is much more efficient to use your primary energy source (solar, nuclear, etc) to produce the electricity directly rather than to waste energy extracting hydrogen to burn to produce electricity.

But imagine for a moment a sane US. I know, it’s impossible, but just imagine it. And imagine we had a very large number of nuclear reactors, and we extracted huge amounts of hydrogen from water or methane and used that hydrogen to power our cars.

Just think of all those useless and powerless ragheads sitting off in their deserts pounding sand up their butts. Isn’t that a dream worth working towards?

[Wonder Warthog]

"Not to produce electricity, since as you say it is much more efficient to use your primary energy source (solar, nuclear, etc) to produce the electricity directly rather than to waste energy extracting hydrogen to burn to produce electricity."

It depends. If you do large-scale solar in the desert Southwest, and need to get the energy to New York, transmission of hydrogen by pipeline is more efficient than trying to transmit the electricity directly.