Comment on The American Physical Society Hydrogen Report

Amory B. Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute argues that the APS Hydrogen Report incorrectly claims a need for new storage materials and underestimates the competitiveness of reformed hydrogen because it assumes the use of heavy, inefficient vehicles. Lovins asserts that ultralight, high-efficiency vehicle designs make current compressed-gas storage and natural-gas-reformed hydrogen economically viable. He further contends that electrolytic hydrogen is too expensive to justify nuclear power subsidies and criticizes the APS panel for relying on a narrow range of outdated governmental sources rather than current technical evidence.

• The APS panel's claim that no existing material can meet consumer benchmarks for hydrogen fuel tanks is based on the fallacy of assuming current heavy and inefficient vehicle designs. Lovins argues that commercial filament-wound carbon-fiber tanks can meet benchmarks for safety, leakage, a 3-5 minute fill, and a 300-mile range if paired with ultralight advanced polymer composite vehicles.
• Hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion becomes economically competitive against gasoline when using high-efficiency vehicle platforms, making the cost of natural-gas-reformed hydrogen viable without the 4x cost reduction suggested by the APS panel. This competitiveness is driven by the 2-3x tank-to-wheels efficiency advantage of fuel cells over gasoline Otto engines.
• Electrolytic hydrogen is currently too expensive to justify further research and development investment or subsidies for nuclear power, as nuclear technologies cannot meet the required cost target of electricity delivered to filling stations at well below 2¢/kWh.
• The APS report is characterized by methodological flaws, specifically because the authors did not conduct new scientific analysis but instead distilled a narrow range of outdated and unquantitative governmental sources.

APA

Lovins, A. B. (2004). Comment on The American Physical Society Hydrogen Report. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_T04-06_APSH2Report.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory B. Comment on The American Physical Society Hydrogen Report. RMI, 2004. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_T04-06_APSH2Report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory B. |title=Comment on The American Physical Society Hydrogen Report |publisher=RMI |date=July 2004 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_T04-06_APSH2Report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{lovins2004comment, author = {Lovins, Amory B.}, title = {{Comment on The American Physical Society Hydrogen Report}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2004}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_T04-06_APSH2Report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }