Apparently, theres a senator that liked one of your ideas...
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Stor...14AE3A091D7%7D
granted, the nature of this would have the government doing what you proposed instead of energy businesses, but in essence, it's the same thing.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- With energy prices skyrocketing, lawmakers considered a bill Thursday that would offer more than $100 million in prize money to developers of technologies that would move the oil-dependent U.S. economy toward a hydrogen energy base.
Sponsored by Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., the legislation was the focus of a hearing at the House Science Committee. The measure would create three prize categories ranging from $1 million to $100 million to spur inventors to overcome the technical barriers to a widespread commercialization of hydrogen as an energy source.
sort of.
This proposed legislation makes the assumption that hydrogen IS the wave of the future, which I kind of understand, because the number of hurdles there are to clear in order to make hydrogen the transportable fuel of choice are far fewer than for other fuels. So I can live with that assumption, but in reality, for something like this, I'd prefer to see that restriction removed.
Anyway, I thought you might like to know.