EEE会議（Re:水素経済に関する国際会議の開催：米国DOE長官の提唱）
03/6/17

各位

標記テーマに関するAbraham米国エネルギー長官の提唱に関連して、今朝のNew York
Times
が興味深い分析記事を載せておりますので、参考までにご紹介します。　

水素エネルギー問題に関しては、EU諸国が、風力、太陽光など再生可能エネルギー開
発の一環として重視しているのに対し、米国が、化石燃料や原子力と一緒に水素を使
おうとしている点で、米EU間には基本的な相違があります。今回の米国提案について
も欧州の専門家達の間からは「EUの水素エネルギー計画が、化石燃料重視のブッシュ
政権にハイジャックされた」という辛辣な批判も出ており、また、「米国は確かに水
素エネルギーの研究開発に莫大な予算を計上してるが、その資金の大半は化石燃料と
原子力関係に使われている」との指摘もあります。　さて日本は、こうした米欧の動
きに対していかに対応すべきか、皆様方にもしっかり考えていただきたいと思いま
す。

金子熊夫
（ベルリンにて）
***************************************:

Europe and U.S. Will Share Research on Hydrogen Fuel

By PAUL MELLER


RUSSELS, June 16 ・The European Union and the United States agreed today to
pool their research efforts into hydrogen fuel cells, despite their widely
differing views on what the technology will mean for energy policy.

While the European Union views the fuel cells as a way to harness renewable
power sources like solar or wind energy, the United States is focusing on
ways to use it along with fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

 "This agreement lays out the framework for our two entities to collaborate
on a matter important to both the U.S. and the European Union: hydrogen
research," said the United States secretary of energy, Spencer Abraham, at a
meeting today with his European counterparts in Brussels.

Mr. Abraham said other countries would be invited to join the cooperation
agreement later. "The United States is looking forward to working together
on a broad international basis, including countries such as Japan," he said.

But critics said the European Union was allowing its plans for hydrogen to
be hijacked by the fossil-fuel-friendly Bush administration.

Eight months ago, Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the
union's executive body, laid out a vision for Europe's energy future once
hydrogen had been harnessed as a practical energy source through the use of
fuel cells. Central to that vision was a reversing of the electricity grid,
with many homes and businesses producing more energy than they use and
piping the surplus through the grid to be sold elsewhere. But that component
was not evident in the agreement today.

"It's a glaring omission from the European plan," said Jeremy Rifkin, author
of "The Hydrogen Economy" and an adviser to Mr. Prodi. Still, he said,
Europe's approach to hydrogen is more advanced than the approach being
pursued by the Bush administration.

Although the United States is spending far more on hydrogen research than
Europe, Mr. Rifkin and others say that much of the money is being channeled
to producers of fossil and nuclear energy. For example, the Energy
Department plans to spend $1 billion over 10 years on a project to extract
hydrogen from coal.

The European commissioner for energy, Loyola de Palacio, denied that the
union's vision for a hydrogen-powered economy had been co-opted. "We can
cooperate in the interests of the whole world," Ms. de Palacio said.

Last year, Mr. Prodi set goals for the union to obtain 22 percent of its
electricity and 12 percent of all its energy from renewable sources by 2010.
Unless it does so, he said, the union will not be able to meet its
obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement calling for
sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

The United States never signed the Kyoto Protocol. But Mr. Abraham said that
his country, too, is pursuing cleaner energy. Half of the United States'
$1.7 billion budget for hydrogen research will be spent on renewable energy
projects, he said.