[ivymike1031]

For many people, a fuel cell with an integral methane reformer is still just a fuel cell, which may go a long way toward explaining why you don't hear much about hydrogen distribution.

I can't think of a single instance when someone has said that oil would be replaced by fuel cells, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been said.

It sounds to me like you're looking for reasons to say that the "liberal media" and environmentalists are wrong, without paying enough attention to the technology that they happen to be talking about. Reminds me a bit of the saying "when you point at the moon, some people will just look at your finger." Remember, although there is value in challenging the orthodoxy, just because something is orthodox doesn't mean it's wrong (and "just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you"). Would it make you happier if it turned out that fuel cells resulted in the proliferation of nuclear power generation, while simultaneously resulting in the complete elimination of vehicular emissions laws (and smog checks, etc)?

I'd personally like to have a methane-powered fuel cell in my basement to generate electricity for my home, with the waste heat used to warm the house. During the winter that would cut my heating & electric bills to a small fraction of what they currently are, and the overall system efficiency (house warming + electric generation) should be substantially higher than what can be achieved at a stand-alone power plant (cogeneration excluded), even approaching 100%. Heck, if the system was properly tuned to the thermal needs of my home, the excess electrical production during the winter could zero-out my electrical bill in the summer (assuming that net-use laws in IL could be adjusted to accomodate net electric use on a yearly, rather than monthly or daily, basis).

I'm starting to wonder whether it would be possible to efficiently transmit hydrogen nuclei via an appropriate wire (or charged conduit), and "reconstitute" the hydrogen at the other end by adding electrons? If I'm not mistaken, that idea is somewhat similar in principle to how metal-hydride batteries work.