THE SHUTTLE MODEL:

Jump-starting hydrogen car dream: SCHWARZENEGGER TO SEEK $54 MILLION FOR FUEL STATIONS, GRANTS (Paul Rogers, 5/23/05, Mercury News)

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will advocate that California invest $54 million in public money to help build a network of up to 100 hydrogen fueling stations statewide within five years, according to new details of his ``Hydrogen Highway'' plan.

A team of more than 200 scientists, automakers and environmentalists spent a year drafting the 144-page document, which the governor requested last year, calling hydrogen-powered cars a way to reduce smog, slow global warming and wean the nation from oil.

The ``California Hydrogen Highway Blueprint'' is set to be formally unveiled Thursday at a Sacramento news conference, and is posted on the state's Web site. If state lawmakers approve funding, California would move ahead of the 13 other states pursuing hydrogen initiatives.

The plan concludes that California can help speed a national transition from gasoline vehicles to environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel cell cars -- whose tailpipes emit only water vapor.

The money would provide matching funds to industry to build up to 100 hydrogen fueling stations in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego. Because 39 already exist or are planned soon, 61 new stations, at a cost of about $1 million each, would need to be built by 2010, the report says. Funding also would provide state grants to automakers of $10,000 per vehicle.

``The idea is that if you build it, they will come,'' said Alan Lloyd, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. ``You have to lay the groundwork.'