Former television movie star turned environmentalist Dennis Weaver and a group of hybrid car enthusiasts stopped by UNM during a tour of the Southwest to promote alternatives to oil Wednesday.
They brought with them three vehicles, two cars powered by a combination of electric and gasoline motors and one van powered by compressed natural gas.
The group is trying to promote the use of electric and natural gas vehicles as a prelude to using clean-burning hydrogen, which is not yet readily available, Weaver said.
"Natural gas is the next step to converting to hydrogen," he said.
Alternative fuel will be a necessity as fossil fuel reserves dry up and relationships with oil producing countries become more unstable in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Weaver said.
"It's absolutely glaringly clear that we are vulnerable," he said. "The economy took a hit, the jobless rate is up, consumer confidence is down - if you think that's a problem now, what if our oil supply was cut off? Oil fuels our economy."
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In 1993, Weaver founded The Institute of Ecolonomics - ecological economics. Members believe that hydrogen fuel cells will be the future power supplier for transportation, industry and homes. He said at current usage rates, oil reserves will dry up within this century.
"We need that oil to create plastic and other important products," he said. "We have to move away from oil as a fuel. Just blowing it out of your tailpipe is a senseless way to use energy."
Weaver said the United States lags behind the rest of the world in development of alternative fuel programs.
"We had so many resources we thought we'd never run out," he said.
The tour, called the Drive for Life, is intended to excite people about the need to move away from dwindling oil resources and on to hydrogen, which can be used to create electricity-producing fuel cells. Members of Weaver's group held a brief press conference in Hodgin Hall and demonstrated the vehicles in the parking lot.
Tai Robinson drives a Dodge Caravan during the tour that runs on either natural gas or gasoline on the tour. Compressed natural gas from a service station costs about 85 cents per gallon equivalent, and can be compressed at home from utility supplies for around 60 cents per gallon equivalent, Robinson said. He said that because it burns cleaner than gasoline, natural gas vehicles last longer.
Robinson said hydrogen technology would help the U.S. maintain its sovereignty, and conserve energy lost during transit from a central source to the end use. He said 70 percent of electricity generated in power plants is lost as it travels through wires.
"It's much more desirable if energy is produced in the place of need," he said. "Each house could have its own power plant - you would have your energy source where you live."
Weaver played Chester in the long-running series "Gunsmoke" and starred in a number of other television series, as well as movies such as 1971's "Duel."
His interest in the environment led him to form the institute, which has worked with government entities and oil companies to promote fuel research.
"When I was a kid, I never heard of smog, acid rain, ozone depletion or global warming," he said. "Practically every environmental problem we have can be traced to our addiction to oil."
Rob Galloway drives a Toyota Prius, one of two on the tour, which runs on a small gasoline engine and an electric motor. The engine recharges the batteries when the car brakes. He said the production of hydrogen fuel cells was just around the corner.
The tour will continue through Santa Fe; Taos; Pueblo, Colo.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and ends in Denver at the Clean Air Festival.
