Replacing gasoline-powered automobile engines with engines powered by hydrogen is a popular topic on late-night talk radio; the common public notions seem to be that hydrogen is already available as an inexpensive source of fuel and that hydrogen automobile engines will operate free of pollution. In fact, hydrogen is currently four times more expensive than gasoline to produce, and while a hydrogen fuel-cell engine creates water as its only by-product, there are no manufacturing processes for hydrogen that do not produce their own serious forms of pollution.

In 2003, President Bush announced the \(\$ 1.2\) billion Hydrogen Initiative, which calls for the commercial use of hydrogen fuel cells in automobile transportation by 2012. Yet science must first overcome tremendous obstacles to the production, transportation, and storage of vast quantities of hydrogen as well as to the development of an adequate hydrogen fuel cell engine. Increased research funding provides no guarantee that these obstacles will be overcome in time to meet the president's goals, if ever. For now, automobile manufacturers should content themselves with the continued development of conventional hybrid-fuel technologies and of more fuel-efficient, internal-combustion gasoline engines.

The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) criticize people who listen to late-night talk radio.
(B) advocate the use of efficient gasoline-powered engines as a practical short-term expedient.
(C) demonstrate that the production of hydrogen generates pollution.
(D) argue that Congress should fund more research into hydrogen fuel cells.
(E) describe obstacles to the development of more fuel-efficient gasoline engines.



It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes which of the following about the current state of public awareness concerning hydrogen fuels?

(A) It is incomplete and inaccurate.
(B) It is entirely based on information gleaned from talk radio.
(C) It is deliberately distorted by talk radio.
(D) It is the driving force behind the president's Hydrogen Initiative.
(E) It would improve with more funding for hydrogen research.



The passage provides information that would answer which of the following questions?

(A) Which fuel is more efficient in producing energy, hydrogen, or gasoline?
(B) Will hybrid gasoline-electric automobiles outsell traditional gasolinepowered automobiles by 2012?
(C) Have scientists already created a commercially adequate engine powered by hydrogen fuel cells?
(D) Does the production of gasoline create more pollution than does the production of hydrogen?
(E) Will the president's Hydrogen Initiative eventually lead to hydrogenpowered automobiles?