For a state as dependent as Florida is on tourists arriving by car, creating a clean alternative to imported oil as a source of fuel for cars and trucks should be a major goal. The Department of Environmental Protection would use the money for demonstration projects involving hydrogen and fuel cells in cars and homes, and to leverage corporate investments in hydrogen.

There are many questions to be answered about hydrogen as a potential alternative fuel, including the power source to be used to create it.

Using electricity from power plants to manufacture hydrogen would greatly reduce the environmental advantages to be gained from it. Hydrogen burns much cleaner than gasoline, producing drastically fewer emissions from tailpipes. But increased emissions from power plants would offset some of the gains.

But not if you use solar power.

Some of the money would go to building solar-powered fueling stations that would create hydrogen through electrolysis powered by energy from the sun. If that proves viable, it would solve the emissions problem.

Today are about 33,000 gas stations in the United States. To make an alternative fuel viable would take about 11,000 fueling stations - the refueling infrastructure critical to the success of hydrogen as a fuel. Making those stations solar-powered would be a major step in the right direction.

Bush has a high-tech future in mind for Florida, as witness the huge investment being made in luring a Scripps research institute to South Florida. Making Florida a leader in hydrogen research is one way of diversifying the high-tech base in the state.