Craig Hunter of The New York Times wrote to confirm authorship before considering Béla Lipták’s letter for publication; the newsletter does not confirm that it ultimately ran. The full text of Lipták’s letter on coal versus solar-hydrogen follows, with the personal phone number omitted.

Dear Bela,

I’m writing to confirm that you wrote the letter below to The New York Times and that you intended it for publication. If so, it is among those we are considering for print, the Web or both.

You may respond to this e-mail address.

Regards,
Craig Hunter

RE: MATTHEW L. WALD: “Coal’s Energy Is an Engineering Challenge Now,” p.F2, 5/1/07

The coal industry is pushing to make hydrogen from coal. The natural gas industry is lobbying to make it from gas. Neither makes sense. These processes are all energy intensive, expensive and require space that does not exist to store the produced carbon dioxide. Hydrogen should be made from water not coal, and the energy to make it should come not from fossil fuels, but from the sun and wind energy. This technology exists, it is economical, totally clean and un-exhaustible.

From the Sun we receive in 30 minutes all the energy we need in a year. If we collect it on our roofs and in places like the Sahara and store or transport it in the form of hydrogen, our problems will forever be solved. A couple of percent of the Sahara can provide the global energy needs of mankind. The cost of a solar hydrogen power plant is similar to that of a fossil or a nuclear power plant and does not require the separation and sequestering of carbon dioxide, nor the waging of energy wars, building missile shields or oil pipelines. What it does require are leaders who care more about the future and less about catering to the coal lobby interests.

Béla Lipták,
Editor, Environmental Engineers’ Handbook
4/25/07
Stamford, CT

Source: Magyar Lobbi, May 4, 2007. See also the Hungarian-language summary on “Szoláris Hidrogén Kísérleti Üzem: Lipták Béla Találmánya.”