From X to H

X Prize founder Peter Diamandis will be in Capitol Hill today, but he won’t be there primarily to talk about commercial spaceflight or space tourism. Instead, he will be one of the witnesses of a House Science Committee hearing this morning on “H-Prize Act of 2006″ (HR 5143), legislation recently introduced by Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) to establish a series of prizes to encourage development of “transformational technologies that can lead to commercialization of hydrogen.” Diamandis’ X Prize Foundation is now moving beyond its origins as a space prize, with plans to run prizes in various other disciplines, including alternative energies.