It’s time to let you in on a project that failed. It failed because of its reliance on elected officials to carry the ball — and they dropped it, so you are the victims.

The extremely high prices you are paying for gasoline and diesel fuel, and the resulting increase in prices of food and practically everything else you buy, are the direct result.

It didn’t have to be that way. Neither did NASCAR.

It began with an idea I had for using hydrogen as a fuel for cars and trucks. Back in 2000, before Iraq got into the headlines, I wrote a white paper on the use of hydrogen as a replacement for gasoline and diesel fuel.

I sent it to George W. Bush and felt rather good about it when I learned that he had plans for adopting one of my recommendations, using hydrogen in fuel cells.

It was a first step, but not the one I had hoped for. The white paper made the point that it would be a simple matter to convert internal combustion engines to use hydrogen directly, just like the conversion to burning LPG or propane.

The project simmered away on the back burner until gasoline and diesel prices hit $2 a gallon.

I could see that there would be no end of it, so I developed a program that would let us enjoy prosperity, right here in Kitsap, and once the idea caught on, nationwide.

And it would rid us of the necessity of dealing with the Arabs for oil.

Ambitious? Certainly. But practical, too, for I am an engineer, and not given to outrageous, impractical ideas.

I began with that white paper. It made the point that hydrogen could be produced economically using the electrolysis process at the current rate charged by the power companies for commercial customers.

It takes 33 kilowatt hours of energy to produce one gallon equivalent of hydrogen (equivalent to a gallon of gasoline). At six cents a kilowatt hour, this meant $1.98 per gallon.

But then I reasoned, why not use tidal energy to generate the electricity?

There was a company up in Canada that claimed expertise in the field of tidal turbines. I got in touch with them, and they appeared eager to talk to us.

They claimed that they could produce electricity at around 3 cents a kilowatt hour, which would mean fuel for cars at about a dollar a gallon equivalent, which was incredible.

Let me complete the picture before I get into the nasty part. There appeared to be no reason why the tidal current idea wouldn’t work. Places like the Tacoma Narrows, Deception Pass, and Admiralty Inlet would be great, but there are dozens of other sites along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Georgia Straits, and along the coastal regions of Washington and Oregon that would be equally productive.

We could run power lines from the turbine farms to a hydrogen manufacturing plant in the South Kitsap Industrial Area. The power lines could be tied into the power grid, providing energy to the system when not engaged in the manufacture of hydrogen, which would be an added benefit.

To use the hydrogen in cars and trucks, it would be necessary to provide conversion kits. These kits would be installed at local garages — a simple matter, I am told. And special tanks would have to be provided for installation in the cars and trucks.

Getting the hydrogen from SKIA to the dealers would mean special trucks equipped to handle it. A whole fleet of such trucks. And tanks to store it at the dealer stations.

The end result would be the development of a whole new industry, from tidal turbines to installation of conversion kits in automobiles and trucks to final delivery of the hydrogen at your local dealer.

The job market would blossom, from blue collar to professional.

We would have developed a cheap and inexhaustible supply of fuel for transportation, and the development of a huge base for new business in a county that was starving for jobs.

It couldn’t fail.

Getting the project rolling seemed relatively easy. I got in touch with a local businessman, and together we figured that the key to the whole thing was getting state support.

The way to get the state involved seemed to be to get one or more of the county commissioners interested.

We approached one of the commissioners, who listened to our presentation, and was very enthused about the idea.

We obtained a target date of early December, 2007, for a presentation to county and state personnel and other interested parties.

But then I heard that the Canadian company we had invited to participate was unreliable. They had faded out of the tidal turbine business and had set up a dummy business consisting of a single engineer and a telephone answering service.

I was never concerned, because I had discovered several other sources of technology that were willing to work with us. I learned also that Tacoma Power and Snohomish PUD were actively involved in granting licenses to install tidal turbines for their own use.

This ruled out several of the choice Puget Sound sites, but left the sites out on the straits and coastal regions untouched. We were still in business.

Nevertheless, our county contact appeared to have lost interest in the project. And on Jan. 2, a personal disaster struck: I suffered a stroke, and was unable to participate in an active way, so the whole thing came crashing down.

And we now look forward to paying $4 a gallon for gasoline – or higher.

So there it sits. I have the project all mapped out in my mind, but am unable to carry it out. Without state support, nothing will get done.

I have approached two of our state senators, but they seemed uninterested.

Perhaps Dino Rossi will be the one to pick this project up and carry it out. But getting in touch with Dino during an election year is not easy.

Someone needs to pick up the ball. The longer we wait, the more we are going to pay for gasoline and food. At some point along the line we will be no longer able to pay.

Then what?

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