Clean fuel’s internal combustion

Imagine legislators in Washington being driven around in steam-powered cars, indicting heavy polluting car companies, holding federal hearings on reducing carbon emissions, and introducing legislation to ban the internal combustion engine within 10 years. Sound like an optimistic future? Try 35 years ago.

Under gloomy forecasts concerning peak oil and global warming, the push for alternative fuel sources has become a hot-button political issue. But it is hardly a new issue. The technology has been available for decades; only the willpower is lacking. Through chicanery, distraction and seedy underhanded schemes, the auto industry has deliberately stalled efforts to replace the internal combustion engine for more than 40 years. However, the general public has committed a far more heinous crime – we’ve let them get away with it.


Legislation to reign in the auto industry and the internal combustion engine can be found as early as 1957 when U.S. Rep. Paul Schenck (R-Ohio) introduced a bill to ban all vehicles that exceeded hydrocarbon levels established by the surgeon general. Imbued with that activist spirit, change really seemed to be at hand in the late ’60s. In 1969, U.S. Rep. Leonard Farbstein (D-N.Y.) introduced an amendment to the Clean Air Act to ban the internal combustion engine by 1978. In conjunction with Nader’s Raiders, Farbstein also invited the Big Three auto companies to a public summit to discuss cleaner fuels. Only Ford showed up.

Federal hearings were convened to investigate alternatives to the internal combustion engine, and one of the more prominent choices was a steam-powered car. In 1968, independent inventors Calvin and Charles Williams drove their steam-powered convertible to Washington and testified before Congress about steam’s potential. The Williams brothers then chauffeured congressmen around the Beltway, impressing them with the car’s agility and quiet ride. At the same time, industry experts were advocating steam engines as light as 150 pounds, and even Ford executives admitted that the engine would fit in most models.

Michigan Daily