Leadership Quote by Bob Inglis

Hydrogen, in Bob Inglis's hands, becomes less a molecule than a political distance marker. "Not as far away as we think it is" is classic legislative persuasion: it doesn’t promise a breakthrough, it reframes timelines. The line is engineered to lower the emotional cost of action. If the technology is "close", then supporting it feels practical rather than ideological, a bet on inevitability rather than a leap of faith.

The specific intent is to recruit skeptical colleagues into a posture of cautious optimism. Inglis isn’t arguing that hydrogen has already won; he’s arguing that it’s close enough to justify policy scaffolding now - research dollars, pilot projects, market rules, permitting, procurement. "I submit" telegraphs deference, a courtroom-like humility that’s also strategic: he positions the claim as reasonable, not crusading, inviting agreement without forcing a culture-war alignment.

The subtext is aimed at two anxieties that haunt energy debates: fear of stranded investment and fear of being seen as anti-fossil-fuel. Hydrogen, especially when discussed in bipartisan rooms, functions as a compromise symbol - a way to talk decarbonization without saying "ban" or "shutdown". It suggests continuity (pipes, plants, jobs) while gesturing toward change.

Context matters because hydrogen has long lived in the gap between promise and infrastructure. By compressing that gap rhetorically, Inglis is trying to convert "someday" into "budget cycle", nudging Congress from climate argument to industrial strategy.