In recent years the world has experienced a technological revolution that has changed the way we live, work and play. From e-mail to cell phones to our ability to buy airline tickets on the Internet, technology is making us more productive and efficient, and raising our standard of living. Transportation is no exception. Today, new and emerging technologies are on the verge of transforming the cars we drive and the fuel that powers them.

President Bush recognized this energy transformation when he announced, during his State of the Union Address, a national hydrogen fuel initiative to speed the development of commercially available hydrogen-powered cars and the energy infrastructure to support them.

“With a new national commitment,” said the president, “our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom, so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and pollution free.”

Such a transformation – from gasoline to hydrogen – would reap huge benefits for our security, economy and environment. Our reliance on imported oil is a serious security concern. The United States today imports 54 percent of its oil from foreign sources, and that dependency is expected to increase to 68 percent over the next 25 years. The Department of Energy is working aggressively with automakers on cutting-edge technologies to improve existing automotive operating systems and reduce fuel consumption.

We should and will continue to make our cars and light trucks cleaner and more efficient during the next few years and, indeed, the Department of Energy’s latest budget submission requests more than $100 million in research and development for hybrid technology, alternative fuels, lightweight materials and clean diesel.

But improving current technologies will not end our dependence on foreign oil or completely eliminate unhealthy emissions. While we invest in these efforts for the near term, we view this work as a bridge to a hydrogen future, one radically different from today’s carbon-based world.

Hydrogen can be produced from diverse domestic sources, such as natural gas, nuclear energy, clean coal, biomass and other renewable sources. By successfully making the transformation to a hydrogen fuel economy, by 2040 most light-duty cars and trucks will be using hydrogen and we will reduce our oil consumption by 11 million to 12 million barrels a day, freeing us from a reliance on foreign oil.

When used in fuel-cell vehicles – which produce power by mixing hydrogen and oxygen – hydrogen will fuel our vehicles with more than twice the efficiency of gasoline in today’s engines, and with none of the harmful emissions. In fact, the only byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is pure water.

To accelerate advances in hydrogen fuel-cell research, last year President Bush initiated FreedomCAR, a partnership between the Department of Energy and the automakers that seeks to develop generational gains in hydrogen fuel cell technology to power the cars of the future. Such an accomplishment would be on the order of moving from the horse and buggy to the Model T.

But, for the mass marketing of hydrogen cars to succeed, our nation must develop a hydrogen infrastructure, like today’s petroleum infrastructure, at the same time automakers perfect hydrogen vehicles. That means we must create everything from hydrogen manufacturing plants, to distribution and storage networks, to convenient hydrogen fueling stations.

To meet this challenge, the administration has proposed a $1.7 billion, five-year FreedomCAR and Hydrogen Fuel Initiative to coordinate the efforts of the energy companies, automakers, utilities, state and local governments, foreign interests and other appropriate players. This initiative will help develop the necessary infrastructure, and fund the high-risk, long-term research that otherwise would not find support.

By working on parallel tracks, developing the hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure concurrently instead of consecutively, a decision to go forward with the commercialization of hydrogen automobiles could be made as early as 2015, 15 years ahead of current projections.

Those who say our plan is difficult are stating the obvious. It is a huge challenge with many obstacles to overcome. But we believe hydrogen is the key to a cleaner, safer and healthier energy future, and we are confident we can succeed.

The automakers and the energy companies agree. The question we face today is how fast this effort should proceed. Some observers, including some environmentalists, are surprisingly timid about the possibility of a new energy future. They say “stay the course” and stick with the internal combustion engine. They propose more government mandates to improve automobile fuel efficiency and higher gas taxes to discourage consumption.

If we follow their advice, in 30 years we will still be debating ways to reduce auto emissions and our dependency on foreign oil. But if we follow President Bush’s bold lead, young adults in 2030 will be chuckling about ancient history, the days when their elders worried about imported oil, polluting emissions and energy security.

That is a vision worth achieving.

Spencer Abraham is U.S. secretary of energy.