Legislation Background
Virginia Hydrogen legislation was modeled after Montana’s HJ26 that was passed in the 2003 Montana General Assembly session. It was my own personal conviction that got the ball rolling back in late 2003. I started looking at different States legislation in regard to alternative energy and especially Hydrogen energy development. What I found was honestly hard to understand at first, just small references in alternative energy legislation. for hydrogen development. Some states were big on words but lacked a coherent conviction to get anything done, or were wordy beyond belief. After looking at numerous states proposals I found an easy to understand plain English common sense legislation that was patroned by Montana State Senator Cindy Younkin and lobbied for by Paul Williamson Dean of The University Of Montana’s College of Technology; House Joint Resolution HJ26. I used this as a template for Virginia because it was not pretentious and it was easy to understand. I wrote the original draft just before the beginning of the 2004 General Assembly. It was late in the legislative year as far as legislation goes, but I plodded on anyways. I received some polite sighs and was even told there was no interest in Virginia for hydrogen period. I went to opening session made the rounds clumsily and received a nice parking ticket from Capital police for my efforts. I realized to little to late, so I tabled it until next year. In the meantime I attended Mid Atlantic Hydrogen Consortium meetings in Annapolis and Baltimore. I started more research and read everything I could, I found allies. I found patrons, first Delegates Bob McDonnell in the house then Delegate John Welch also in the house, then Senators Nick Rerras and Bill Bolling from the Virginia Senate. I met with Nic van Vuuran of Clean Cities I would lobby for the legislation and Nic would educate our legislators on current Hydrogen projects in the state. I had a lot of help from 2 good friends; Dick Krol, my good coffee drinking buddy, I think we are at 200 gallons of good Coffee to date, and Senators Rerras’s aid Dan Haworth. Dick is an engineer and Dan can do most anything.