Hydrogen advocate steps off the ABG comment platform
Regular AutoblogGreen readers will surely recognize the name Greg Blencoe. The organizing force behind Hydrogen Car Revolution often comments in posts relating to hydrogen and/or plug-in vehicles and certainly has his critics on these pages. Actually, make that commented. Blencoe has made it public that he's done participating in the discussion – which, granted, sometimes gets heated and, sadly, a bit personal – of issues here. You can read his farewell to AutoblogGreen, and take note that he does "apologize to anybody on AutoblogGreen that I have offended through my actions." We expect to continue to link to his blog in the future when there's something of interest to the ABG community, but for now we'll just point readers to Blencoe's list of Top Ten Hydrogen Car Revolution posts of all time. Any final thoughts from our readers?
[Source: Hydrogen Car Revolution]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
qwerty 7:19PM (9/04/2009)
"Don't let the door hit-ya where the good lord split-ya"
Reply
GoodCheer 7:18PM (9/04/2009)
Cool. Go us.
Now if only gorr had a WeWereAllDecayingCorpsesFor2000YearsWhoCouldFlyPoweredByWater.org blog to retreat to...
No, but seriously... what would be the fun of it if everyone who posted agreed all the time?
Reply
polo 10:32PM (9/04/2009)
Good riddance.
Hydrogen's only future is as the preferred component for improvised bombs made by right-wing fanatics and extremists. Nobody is going to accept security checkpoints just to refuel your car and regular random car searches to make sure you haven't turned your hydrogen tank into a mobile weapon. I question what Blencoe's REAL intentions were.
Derk McRockgroin 1:48PM (9/05/2009)
Greg, thank you for leaving.
You did the right thing.
Reply
contact 7:28PM (9/04/2009)
I didn't object to him being here or anything he posted. I find it kind of annoying at times to be pushing a H2 agenda in an EV discussion but I'm guilty of the same thing.
Glen, don't feel bad pr guilted into leaving. Your only misstep is believing in hydrogen technology. We've all bet on a loser before.
Reply
jake 7:39PM (9/04/2009)
Yeah, a lot of us push an EV agenda in a H2 discussion, so I didn't blame him for doing the inverse. But it did get quite annoying after a while, because sometimes his posts just seems too much like spam posts (doesn't help that he has his hydrogen company link on the bottom of his posts like most spam does) and doesn't really tie in that well into the topic.
polo 10:24PM (9/04/2009)
"Yeah, a lot of us push an EV agenda in a H2 discussion, so I didn't blame him for doing the inverse."
Unless you work for an EV company and you were using your posts to spam the board with links to your website, there is no comparison.
Chris M 10:33PM (9/04/2009)
It wouldn't have been so bad if he could have made a good argument, but instead he would cut and paste the same "appeal to authority" list. Ignoring the subject of the discussion didn't help, either.
Tom 7:41PM (9/04/2009)
I have been accused of being Blencoe, which gets plain weird at times. Kinda like talking to the "Truthers" about steel deforming temperatures, but oh well, 7% of Americans believe Elvis is not dead.
As to fuel cells, I have a question. If fuel cells are a dead end then why are so many companies spending lots of money to get their technologies patented? In the 2nd quarter of 2009, the number of patents granted were 156 fuel cell, 43 wind, 36 solar, 20 hybrid/EVs, 13 biofuels, 2 geothermal, and 8 tidal/wave. Fuel cells have had more patents since 2002 then any other category in the clean energy index. Look at the graph.
http://cepgi.typepad.com/heslin_rothenberg_farley_/
Reply
Nick P. 8:02PM (9/04/2009)
Tom,
Sorry for mistaking you for Blencoe, but he *did* spam this blog under different names. Not many people post pro-hydrogen comments with links attached to "learn more". That's a lot of work unless you're constantly searching on the topic like he does.
What, Elvis is dead?! You ruined my day! ;)
Brian 9:20PM (9/04/2009)
"If fuel cells are a dead end then why are so many companies spending lots of money to get their technologies patented"
Because there is money to be made in fuel cells. Mostly from government subsidies, and maybe a few special applications where fuels cells do make sense (not cars).
Did people spend billions building Ethanol plants because Ethanol is a good motor fuel?
Tohe 7:44PM (9/04/2009)
No offense to Mr. Blanco, but I find your treatment of this issue far more annoying than Mr. Blencoe's posts. You have given this clown a platform to obsessively abuse this blog and your readership's valuable time. This article means nothing. Tell us you have take steps to block this type of abuse where Blencoe posts under God knows how many different accounts in disguise, and then we might start to take you seriously.
Reply
FitFan 7:47PM (9/04/2009)
I think the problem was copying & pasting company info into many threads. I agree with 'contact' -- if he didn't have his company sig at the bottom of every post it would have felt more like he was participating in a discussion rather than pushing a company agenda.
Reply
miles 8:03PM (9/04/2009)
Agreed. We all have our points of view, and the discussion it engenders is valuable. But good grief man, to continuously plug your companies interests on a blog like this gets tiring REAL fast.
REAL REAL fast when it obvious there's an addtional financial motivation involved.
rob 7:56PM (9/04/2009)
Any position contrary to your own will appear to be annoying.
Reply
Lorena Palin 8:03PM (9/04/2009)
can I just point out what this websight is like overall?
On the plus side, it is a very nice, up-to-date blog on developing technologies and cars, and it's probably the best place to get news of these developments in a central location.
But on the minus side, it's kind of sad, because you even think of the phrase "hydrogen agenda"- I mean, the folks on the sight have a habbit of beating up whatever green technologies aren't the one they are a fan of. It's like everyone here has one pet technology that they want EVERYONE to use. And it's silly.
It among other things gets everyone jaded, and pissed off, and because EV fanss are the dominant users of the blog, everyone else has to get extra loud and extra vicious.
I personally like diesels, vapor injection, 6-strokes, hydrogen/CNG burned in ICEs, and modes of transportation that reduce weight and engine size but use conventional gasoline ICEs (motorcycles and tiny-ass cars). Oh, and I like bicycles and trains, but they arent as flashy.
But I'm not going to deny that hybrids, EVs, and PHEVs are good for the planet. I wouldn't want to own one, but if you want to, thats fine. I'd support charging stations and induction strips in highway lanes, but I still want to get gasoline for a motorcycle, and diesel for a small car, or maby CNG. I like my stick shifts and engine noise. Other people care less about that, but why be hell bent on killing that when there are plenty of people trying to get as much efficency as possible out of it?
Different lifestyles warrant different vehicles. I think there is a place for all of them. And the place is my garage will be different from the place in your garage and thats fine.
and as for H2- Waiting for technology to advance and drop in price is stupid. It applies for fuel cells, batteries, and ICEs that get 200+mpg at highway speeds. But any of these advances could happen- and when they do, you should all reconsider your opinion and see what comes out.
So, just play nice, and realise that everyone here wants to reduce carbon emissions, save fuel and generaly play nice with the planet. It really dosn't matter how they do it.
Reply
wincros 8:03PM (9/04/2009)
I think I disagree with those who objected to his signature line. That sort of made him honest and above board about where he was coming from. His problem was that his responses were often unresponsive to the issue at hand and the information he provided was little more than copies of promotional sales literature. Someone who was informed and helpful in participating in an informative discussion would be welcome no matter where he was from.
Reply
Nick P. 8:08PM (9/04/2009)
I was actually hoping that he would eventually evolve his opinion to embrace electric drive trains as they can also be used for fuel cell cars. Burning hydrogen is a non starter however.
A standalone blog is a good solution for him and I wish him well. Being known as the "Hydrogen Spam Guy" was not helping his cause. Nobody wants to be associated with spammers.
Reply
jpm 8:28PM (9/04/2009)
Aww boo hoo greg. I'm swo sad you are weaving.
Reply
David 8:52PM (9/04/2009)
This is news?
Reply