The car of the future is within reachtoday letter to the me - GED Practice Questions

Question

The Car of the Future Is Within Reach Today

Letter to the Members of Congress:

I strongly encourage you to approve funding for research into hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles have important advantages over electric cars that would reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Unfortunately, there are areas such as the system to distribute hydrogen gas to drivers for refueling purposes and the method used to create hydrogen gas that need additional research to make these vehicles a real transportation alternative. 

Any transportation alternative that uses renewable resources must meet our long-range needs. Like electric cars, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles do not produce any harmful emissions from their tailpipes, but hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles have three significant advantages over electric vehicles: 

•Electric cars can drive only about 100 miles before they need to be recharged. A car running on hydrogen fuel can drive more than 300 miles, making long-distance travel a possibility. 

• Electric vehicles take anywhere from four to ten hours to recharge. Drivers can refuel hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles with hydrogen gas in about 10 to 30 minutes. 

• The most convenient place to recharge an electric vehicle is at a driver's home or place of work. Unfortunately, few employers or businesses are equipped to provide recharging stations. 

On the other hand, drivers can pump hydrogen into their cars at the same service stations that provide gasoline. 

While only a few hydrogen pumps have been installed at service stations to date, hydrogen gas could be as close as your local gas station. Determining how to install pumps on a wide scale is a worthy investment of our tax dollars. Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is a major concern. While the U.S. Department of Energy states that electric cars reduce the use of fossil fuels, these vehicles store only electricity, which is still usually produced from nonrenewable fossil fuels. 

On the other hand, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles actually create their own electricity through chemical reactions with the hydrogen gas that they carry. Although current methods to create hydrogen gas use the energy from fossil fuels, the gas can be created from renewable sources such as wind power. The search for cost-effective renewable methods of creating hydrogen gas is another area that would greatly benefit from funding. 

What is needed is funding for research in key areas, such as installing hydrogen pumps in more service stations and creating hydrogen gas by using renewable energy sources. Your support ensures that we will develop this promising technology to its full potential.

What is the primary purpose of the passage?