The Pickens Plan for energy independence which has been causing an enormous stir on the Internet calls for a transition towards natural gas powered cars in the United States.

EcoGeek has a nice article that dispels the widespread myth that cars that can run on nothing but water are on the horizon. The basic laws of chemistry tell us that to get water powered cars we’d have to build the world’s first perpetual motion machine.

As they put it:

There are a lot of variations on the water powered car, but they’re all bogus…. you can’t get more energy out of the system than you put in.

In other words, powering a car with nothing but water violates the laws of chemistry. Energy is needed not only to break water into its hydrogen and oxygen parts but also to recombine them. The only conditions under which this process can take place are those with highly engineered systems, with the built-in energy to make this process happen.

However, the process cannot take place with the presence of water alone.

The Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen car has begun commercial production, with 200 cars slated to be produced over the next 3 years. While that number is quite low, it bodes well for fuel-cell technology that one of the world’s largest car manufacturers is starting to crank these cars out into the streets.

For a long time, you had to purchase a hybrid out of the goodness of your heart. In other words, for the longest time, the likelihood of your owning your hybrid long enough for it to payoff was very, very low. You really needed to go hybrid for non-economical reasons (like your love for the environment).

The good news is that many hybrids are now cost-effective. They pay for themselves in less than 5 years, under normal driving conditions. Of course, you should keep in mind that hybrids are much more effective at saving gas in city driving as opposed to highway driving. If you do mostly highway driving, your hybrid purchase might still need to be an act of conscience, and not an attempt to save the piggybank.