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Neil Schilke, General Director of Engineering, GM Public Policy Center, and a past President of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).
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Doug Randall, Senior Practitioner at Global Business Network (GBN). He has over ten years of scenario planning, business strategy, and sales experience working with large corporations, not-for-profits, universities, and research organizations to address complex business, social, and environmental challenges.
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Daniel Lashof, Science Director of NRDC's Climate Center. Dr. Lashof has written extensively on many aspects of the global warming problem and national energy policy. His recent publications include Dangerous Addiction: Ending America's Oil Dependence, A Responsible Energy Policy for the 21st Century, and The Role of Biotic Carbon Stocks in Stabilizing Greenhouse Gas Concentration at Safe Levels. Dr. Lashof was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry and has served on the National Research Council's Committee on Atmospheric Chemistry.
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In the President's State of the Union Address, he committed $1.2 billion towards research into the promise of hydrogen as the fuel of the future. In theory, hydrogen is extremely appealing as an energy source since it burns cleanly, producing water as its only byproduct and it is the most abundant element in the universe. In reality, there are several daunting challenges that must be overcome before Americans will be driving hydrogen vehicles and refueling at hydrogen fueling stations. Among these is the difficulty in producing hydrogen in a useable form and in a manner that does not result in more pollution than is saved. However, substantial research is already underway in both the public and private sector to bring hydrogen vehicles to the marketplace with prototypes already in service in the United States and abroad.
The Forum on May 1st will address the challenges in bringing the vision of hydrogen-powered vehicles to the mass market. Speakers will discuss the status of hydrogen vehicles today and the research underway on the next generation of vehicles; alternatives to hydrogen vehicles that may hold as much, and in some cases more, promise both economically and environmentally; and finally, whether the United States is spending too much, the right amount, or too little on hydrogen research compared to the expected return on this investment.
