I was reading in Business 2.0 about a new BMW vehicle, called the Hydrogen 7. The article reminds us that petroleum-fueled vehicles emit more than 10 billion metric tons of carbon into the air each year. The Hydrogen 7 is interestingly, not a fuel-cell vehicle. Rather, it uses a combustion engine to burn both gas and hydrogen--i.e. bi-fuel. This seems rather disappointing at first, but given the absence of hydrogen pumps in many parts of the nation, it is realistic, at least in the short term. The article notes that the H7 (with its cost not listed in the article) is really destined for the rich and famous--or at least the rich--to act as ambassadors of sorts for hydrogen's benefits. The article further tries to dispel the notion that this vehicle is a smaller version of the Hinderburg, by noting that hydrogen is safer than gasoline. Yet, it does remind us that hydrogen is volatile and occasionally unstable and hence, parking in closed garages where the vapors could ignite, is forbidden. If a breach is detected in the tanks, the car's engine is designed to stop. If all else fails, the driver can pull out the fire extinguisher beneath the front passenger seat. A little scary, perhaps. Yet, if we want to transition towards a carbon-free world (or at least a carbon-reduced world), we need to learn how to manage and use hydrogen properly. If this idea takes off, perhaps the next H7s selling in the dealerships will be the hydrogen-only version. BMW is already working on those.