The Bumpy Pathway to an Energy Breakthrough

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett is one of the founders and, one might say, the lion of Congress’s peak oil caucus, a group of lawmakers concerned about the world’s oil supply running out. With leonine intensity, the Maryland Republican took on the Bush administration on its funding priorities for energy research and development.

“Why are we interested in hydrogen?” Bartlett pounced, at a contentious budget hearing by the House Committee on Science and Technology’s subcommittee on energy and environment.

“Hydrogen, like fusion, represents the holy grail out there,” responded Steve Isakowitz, chief financial officer of the Department of Energy. It could hold the keys to reducing dependence on fossil fuels, he said.

“How is it going to do that, since hydrogen is not an energy source?” Bartlett shot back. “We will always use more energy to make hydrogen than we get out of it.”

US News & World Report