Is fueling cars with hydrogen "an environmental dead end"? Or the scheme with "the greatest potential to dramatically reduce pollution, greenhouse gases, and oil use"?

Make up your own mind about the future of hydrogen as an automobile fuel during an online debate led by UC Davis transportation fuels expert Daniel Sperling.

Sperling recently made two trips in 10 days to Capitol Hill to speak to U.S. senators, members of Congress and staffers about the future of hydrogen as an automobile fuel. This week he takes the conversation to a wider audience -- the international online community.

At the Web site of a PBS television program, Sperling, the director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, is debating Joseph Romm, executive director and founder of the Center for Energy & Climate Solutions.

The "NOVA scienceNOW" Web site contains a number of resources for information and discussion about hydrogen fuel cell cars. "[They] promise pollution-free driving, but will we see them anytime soon?" ask the site editors. In the Point/Counterpoint feature, Sperling and Romm are each writing six short essays on the status and prospects for solving "the four most fundamental technological and economic challenges" to hydrogen-fueled transportation, as noted by a 2004 National Academies report (which Sperling co-authored).

The "scienceNOW" site also features an interactive fuel-cell car; a primer on how fuel cells work; a 14-minute TV "scienceNOW" news story; and a discussion forum.