LARAMIE - The list of cooperators in the Hydrogen Implementation Conference at the University of Wyoming beginning Tuesday shows that the lightest element is attracting heavy interest worldwide.

Shown among the expected energy research and development entities on the list are some surprising sponsors such as the American Jewish Congress and the U.S.-India Business Alliance.

Neil Goldstein, director of the AJC, will lead a discussion on U.S.-Israel energy cooperation at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Sanjay Puri, president of the India Alliance, will chair a session on "Hydrogen Energy: Vision and Impact" at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

David Haberman, President of the Mountain States Hydrogen Business Council organizing the conference, said he has been involved for eight years with an energy independence task force founded by the American Jewish Congress "which has the thesis that both the U.S. and Israel face the same problems with energy. Neither country wants to fight endless energy wars."

He said Israel is very interested in hydrogen because that country has "zero energy resources and has to import everything. So you have a western civilization basically blockaded by unfriendly neighbors. We can learn a lot from them."

Haberman said he was part of a delegation from the National Energy Technology Laboratory who went to Israel and talked about cooperation on carbon management, alternative fuels and efficiency "and what came out of that was an extremely strong interest in hydrogen," he said.

"The thesis is to get energy from water, split the hydrogen and use it as fuel. No cartel can keep water away from us."

The U.S. also must be interested in what energy systems are being used in India "because we all live in the same atmosphere." The economy in India, he said, "is evolving, more of them are driving and they're using more and more power."

Mark Northam, director of the UW School of Energy Resources, said the only place in the world currently implementing a hydrogen-based economy is Iceland where they have an excess of geothermal energy which can be used to hydrolize water. "If we had sources of pure hydrogen it would be the ideal fuel because it's clean," Northam said. "But we don't. It has to be extracted from other sources such as fossil fuels or water, which both require putting energy into the process to get energy back out."