National Hydrogen Association memership coordinator Stuart Dilg (l) talks with (l- r) home school students Ben and Jonathan Bartlett with their mother Melissa, along with Sarah from New Heights School and another home schooler Joyce Southwell. After its five- day affair last week, March 30 - April 3, at the convention center, the National Hydrogen Association can call its conference a success. On the day the public was invited, more than 2,000 showed up, something of a record for the NHA.

Near the end of the conference, Thursday afternoon, April 2, S.C. Representative Joan Brady moderated a panel of experts, seven people key to the cause for developing hydrogen fuel- powered vehicles and other pollution- free devices.

Rick Smith, founder of the all- volunteer non- profit Hydrogen Energy Center in 1991, urged the audience to stop wars over oil. The path to a hydrogen- powered economy should be easy steps, deliberate and measured steps with no promises too good to be true.

Carla York, CEO of Innovation Drive, has 18 years in alternative transportation. She asked if the audience wanted its children and grandchildren to breathe clean air.

Dr. Shannon Baxter- Clemmons, executive director Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Alliance Joel Rinebold, director of energy initiatives at the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, narrowed the hydrogen debate to two goals: creation of jobs and protection of the envi- ronment.

Patrick Serfass, director for Technology and Communications at the National Hydrogen Association offered his three main areas of concern: (1) energy security, (2) the environment, and (3) the economy. Hydrogen power can address all three, eventually.

Rolf Nordstrom, executive director of the Great Plains Institute and Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative, said hydrogen was all around, the most plentiful element on the planet. Audiences need to hear this, but most audiences are predominantly one group out of three: policy makers, professionals, and lay people. Nordstrom likes the see- and- touch technology of the Zamboni machine that runs on hydrogen power.

Mark Sieckman, communications director of the South Carolina Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Alliance, said he wanted more demonstrations on the street, especially at the State Fair.

Chris White, the communications director at the California Fuel Cell Partnership, drives a hydrogen fuel cell automobile in Los Angeles. Before joining the CaFCP, she was IBM's spokesperson for new technology. She said few people know how their cell phones work, even fewer understand the technology behind the DVR. All they want to know is how it performs, not necessarily how it works. The cell phone business sees 1.5 million cell phones sell worldwide every day. Hydrogen power can have the same appeal. Keep it simple, as White put it.

Questions from the audience included the recommendation to see the film, "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

There was the fear shared that the hydrogen economy will go the way of the oil economy; that is, too much commerce concentrated in too few corporations. No one mentioned that every company that goes public is forever owned by the shareholding public.