Natural Resources >> Analyst Interviews >> June 18, 2002
PETER HOFFMANN is a former Washington correspondent for a major
business/technology news service, McGraw Hill World News. From the late
1960s to the early 1980s he was stationed in Milan, Italy, and Bonn,
Germany, from where he also covered what was then communist Central
Europe during the 1970s. His articles on hydrogen energy have appeared
in Business Week, The Washington Post, The Friends of the Earth magazine
Not Man Apart, Germany's GEO, Britain's Financial Times European Energy
Report, Italy's Ambiente, Chemical Engineering and Chemical Week. He
contributed the 'hydrogen' entry to the 1986 New Book of Knowledge, a
Grolier encyclopedia for young people. His 1981 book, The Forever Fuel -
The Story of Hydrogen subject' by Kirkus Review. Foreign Affairs
(November/December 2001) had this to say about Mr. Hoffmann's new book,
Tomorrow's Energy - Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and the Prospects for a Cleaner
Planet (MIT Press, September 2001): 'This book has everything the reader
needs to know about hydrogen - its discovery, the numerous attempts to
use it as fuel, its (quite good) safety record, and the practical and
economic difficulties that must be overcome if hydrogen is to realize
its potential as a non-polluting, non-carbon-emitting fuel.' And
Britain's New Scientist (March 16, 2002) wrote: 'Though its scope is too
broad to allow detailed analysis, it clearly expounds the key issues
surrounding hydrogen: the requirement for a fossil or renewable primary
energy source for hydrogen production; complexities and advances in the
crucial area of hydrogen storage; the barriers to widespread rapid
introduction of hydrogen technologies.' Profile
industry? What is its focus? Who are you trying to reach?
Mr. Hoffmann: I have been writing about hydrogen for a
