GOVERNMENT & POLICY entists and inventors who successfully ad vance hydrogen technology as an alternative source of fuel. Sponsored by House Research Subcom mittee Chairman Bob Inglis (R-S.C), the HPrize Act of2006 directs the Department of Energy to contract with a private foundation to establish criteria for the prizes and admin ister the contest. A $10 million grand prize would be awarded for creating a "transforma tional" technology that brings the hydrogen car to driveways around the country. Four prizes ofup to $1 million each would be awarded every other year for technologi cal advancements in research, and a $4 mil lion prize would be awarded every two years for the creation of hydrogen vehicle prototypes. Alto gether, the proposal autho rizes $52 million in federal funding between fiscal 2007 and 2016. If no one makes a significant breakthrough within those 10 years, the Η-Prize would expire. Inglis hopes the bill will stir scientific competition to overcome the production costs, storage issues, and distribution prob-
HYDROGEN FUEL INCENTIVE ADVANCES ON CAPITOL HILL Η-Prize would provide reward for scientists who develop an affordable hydrogen vehicle GLENN HESS, C&EN WASHINGTON
L
OOKING BEYOND SHORT-TERM
solutions to the nation's current energy crunch, lawmakers are pushing for more incentives to spur development oftreakthrough tech nologies that would move the oil-dependent U.S. toward a hydrogen-based economy. "Suddenly, the whole nation is focused on gas prices and our addiction to oil, and Congress is in a panic trying to figure out how to respond," House Science Com mittee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (RN.Y.) remarked at a committee meeting in late April. "Our options in the immediate future are limited, but our options in the mid- and long-term are not. Unless we ex ercise those options, we are going to lurch
from oil crisis to oil crisis, and each one is going to get worse." One strategy that has gained support on Capitol Hill in recent months is the establishment of a national prize competi tion to encourage the R&D necessary to overcome the technical barriers that cur rently stand in the way of hydrogen becoming a prac tical alternative to oil in fueling the transportation sector. Modeled after the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which spurred the first privately funded suborbital space flight in 2004, the Η-Prize would provide millions of dollars in cash awards for sci-
"The H-prize puts our money where our mouth is.'
New Heterocyclic Boronic Esters for Drug Discovery , v^-o BE09
BE33
BE39
Expertise.
BE30 Cl
Cl
^ £ ) < α ^ ώ $ ^ 0 5 *NI" Bb°.£ BE18
BE27
BE28
BE29
Avtw a _ tow O-f-
BE08
O-p
BE07
N
B o
Κ Μβό
BE17
O-f-
BE21
Method Development Provide customized services to resolve unique challenges.
H2
jfiiB.o^H2Nt\ .
