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The Fourth Wall
JOHN SHAFFER
Imagine a fuel source for
your vehicle that is incredibly
cheap, and produces only wa-
ter vapor instead of fog. Au-
tomakers Ford, Nissan, and
Daimler (manufacturer of
Mercedes-Benz), are teaming
up to create a hydrogen pow-
ered car which they hope to
make mass-marketable by the
year 2017. The main focus of
the partnership will be to de-
velop mass producible fuel
cells for automobiles. Cur-
rently, alternative energy cars
use large battery packs
which are heavy, take ages to
made of toxic or environmen-
tally damaging materials like
lead. By contrast, a fuel cell
causes a reaction through a
combination of hydrogen and
oxygen. The only byproduct
of this reaction is water va-
por. Given the current climate
change crisis, the implica-
tions of a greenhouse gas free
vehicle are huge. Additional-
ly, hydrogen tanks can be
refilled in mere minutes in-
stead of the hours that it can
take to charge an electric car.
Hydrogen fuel cells are al-
vanced technologies like sat-
ellites. Mer-
cedes-Benz
currently operates a fleet of
approximately 100 hydrogen-
powered cars in a private test
run that is unavailable to the
public. Although hydrogen
cars sound like the miracle
fix to our carbon dioxide
nightmare, despite the bene-
fits there are numerous draw-
backs to having hydrogen
cars. :
The biggest challenge that
hydrogen powered cars pre-
sent is their cost. Hydrogen
engines are still very proto-
typic and require an enor-
mous amount of development
and testing to make, costs
which are passed on to the
consumer. Toyota earlier an-
nounced that they would have
hydrogen vehicles ready by
the year 2015 for a cost of
$50,000 each. Since then, the
automaker has reported that
they anticipate the costs will
be much greater. There are
several logistical issues to
implementing these vehicles
also. Hydrogen fueling sta-
tions are hard to come by in
the United States, and few of
them are public. The three
automakers have stated that
they will not be looking into
producing refueling: stations
for their cars. On top of that,
production of hydrogen is a
highly energy-intensive pro-
cess, making it incredibly
expensive. There are ways to
extract it from natural re-
sources like natural gas and
coal, but these are expensive,
non-renewable energy
sources.
Staff
Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton was called before
the House Foreign Affairs
committee to testify about
her response to the Septem-
ber 11th Benghazi embassy
attacks that left four Ameri-
cans dead. Republican scru-
tiny of Secretary Clinton
was heavy. Representative
Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said
"You let the consulate be-
come a death trap, and that’s
national security malprac-
tice.” Clinton, although ac-
knowledging the lack of se-
curity was a misstep, de-
fended her position and the
actions of her department,.
She responded by stating
that the State Department
was implementing all 29
recommendations put for-
ward by the Accountability
Review board and also per-
sonally appointing a State
Department team to review
and focus on embassy secu-
rity worldwide. It was ap-
parent that Clinton took the
criticism to heart stating
“For me, this is not just a
matter of policy—it’s per-
sonal. I stood next to Presi-
dent Obama as the Marines
carried those flag-draped
caskets off the plane at An-
drews,” as she choked back
tears.
The exchanges became
more heated during the Sen-
ate hearings. Senator Ron
Johnson channeled Republi-
can talking points, and
asked Clinton why she did
not simply place a phone
call to one of the victims to
determine whether the at-
tacks were an act of terror or
a protest. Clinton responded
angrily while pounding her
fists on the table and saying,
"Was it because of a protest
or was it because of guys
out for a walk one night de-
cided they'd go kill some
Americans? What differ-
ence, at this point, does it
make? It is our job to figure
out what happened and do
everything we can to pre-
vent it from ever happen-
ing.” Despite Clinton’s fer-
vent responses, many Re-
publicans still were not sat-
isfied. Republican
Senator John
McCain pressed Clinton on
why she ignored a wire
from ambassador Christ Ste-
vens stating that the embas-
sy would not be able to fight
off a sustained attack. Clin-
ton responded more diplo-
matically to her old senate
colleague, and acknowl-
edged the personal relation-
ship that he had with ambas-
sador Stevens. Republican
senator Rand Paul even
went so far to say that he
would have
fired Ms.
Clinton over
the attack. For
moths, Re-§
publican law- |
makers have
been very
critical of the
administra-
tion’s re-
sponse to the
Benghazi at-
tacks, with §
some even
going so far
as to suggest
that there was [§
an administra-
tion cover-up. United Na-
tions Ambassador Susan
Rice has also faced criticism
for having called the attack
a protest instead of an act of
terror. Senator Clinton suf-
fered a concussion before
her last scheduled appear-
ance to testify, and lawmak-
ers were eager to finally
have her before congress.
Although it is apparent that
all of the questions about
Benghazi are not answered,
one thing is for certain:
Clinton has helped to clear
attacks, and hopefully this is
an issue that we can see re-
solved soon.