Remember When The Joker Drove A Hydrogen Powered Car?

by Michael dEstries July 30, 2008
Categories: Transport
Tags: jack nicholson.

I’m digging back into the archives a bit because with all the talk lately of hydrogen-powered vehicles, it’s really funny to remember that Jack Nicholson had one. In 1978.

Back then, the oil embargo was an even more giant inconvenience than today’s high prices. You actually had to wait in line for the stuff — and even then only if your license plate ended in an odd or even number depending on the day.

Leave it to Jack Nicholson to pull up in a modified Chevy running on hydrogen to prove to everyone how possible it was not to depend on oil companies for energy. Even more surreal — the hydrogen was created using electricity supplied by solar panels. All this — from over thirty years ago!

“It’s like a standard Chevy,” the actor said then. “I backed it up, you know, because the last time the auto industry tried to destroy an independent industrialist, they said a “Tucker” wouldn’t back up. Remember that?” Well no, Jack, not exactly. Nicholson went on further, “If nothing else, this will revolutionize car-assisted suicide. Instead of carbon monoxide poisoning, you’ll just get a steam bath…”

Imagine where we’d be today if we had diversified our energy sources and listened to Jack? Can we afford another 30 years of “Remember When”?

About Michael dEstries

Michael has been blogging since 2005 on issues such as sustainability, renewable energy, philanthropy, and healthy living. He regularly contributes to a slew of publications, as well as consulting with companies looking to make an impact using the web and social media. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his family on an apple farm.

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http://www.h2andyou.org Miguel

Over the last several decades, we have witnessed different kinds of technologies evolve and impact our lives in ways we couldn’t have completely imagined. Everything from cell phones to computers to televisions have evolved and improved in speed, reception, size and capabilities. This advancement in technology became possible by supporting research. The same is true for hydrogen technologies today. Researchers are continuing to explore, improve and diversify how hydrogen can impact our lives. In fact, some hydrogen technologies are already improving our lives. The next cell phone call you make could be powered by hydrogen since fuel cell power supplies support cell phone towers. The next time you shop at Wal-Mart, the box of Oreo cookies and the new Blue Ray movie you purchase could be transported with a fuel cell forklift, or may have been driven across the country on a semi-truck using a hydrogen injection system.

Although, Nicholson drove a type of hydrogen car 30 years ago, hydrogen technologies have evolved and improved dramatically since then. (If there is anything we can appreciate about Jack, it is his style and choice of automotive technology!) Supporting research will continue to push the envelope by improving on existing hydrogen technologies and creating new ones. For example, last week an MIT scientist discovered a new catalyst that could greatly impact how solar energy could produce hydrogen.

As a representative of the Hydrogen Education Foundation, I am helping people understand the role hydrogen will play in our energy future. As energy costs continue to increase, it is becoming more critical for the world to transition to an alternative fueling infrastructure. Instead of seeking a single solution, a portfolio of energy choices will emerge in different ways all over the world. In some areas solar might make more sense, in others, wind or hydropower, and nuclear might be used elsewhere – and all of these sources can be used to create hydrogen. Hydrogen carries the promise to guide us away from depending on foreign energy imports, while simultaneously improving our environment by reducing greenhouse gases.

To learn more about the benefits of hydrogen, we invite everyone to please visit and ask us questions at http://www.h2andyou.org.
http://www.lumag.com Remy Chevalier

Jack wrote the chapter on solar electricity for Don Henley’s Walden Woods Project book “Heaven Under Our Feet”

What this video doesn’t show, is that Neil Young was there as well.

I posted this to the ET list four or five years ago…