On February 14, the first Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Conference got underway at the Gaylord Hotel on the outskirts of Washington DC. CaFCP staff and members presented at several sessions, and six CaFCP members had fuel cell passenger vehicles and a bus available for the ride and drive. (You can read our tweet stream from the conference keynotes on Twitter using #FCHEA11.)

The conference was just the beginning of the week in DC. We had events the rest of the week on Capitol Hill, at the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Transportation and at the Pentagon. It could not have come at a better time. On February 14, the proposed budget was released with a 40% cut in funding for DOE’s hydrogen program. Many people attended the events to understand just how close fuel cell technology is to the commercial market.

We had an excellent opportunity to share with people at all levels of government the automakers’ plans to commercialize fuel cell vehicles in California, and show the State of California’s commitment to building hydrogen stations. Our friends and colleagues in other fuel cell technologies (stationary, material handling, portable) demonstrated the business and environmental benefits that companies across the US are already seeing from these commercially available products.

Two of the highlights of the week were the Capitol Hill briefing and a briefing with DOT Secretary Ray Lahood. The presentations, audio and video from the Hill briefing are on the EESI website at http://www.eesi.org/fuel-cell-and-hydrogen-energy-development-16-feb-2011. Secretary Lahood’s blog about our visit is at http://fastlane.dot.gov/