We might quietly scoff at the Toyota (NYSE: TM) Prius drivers - after all, the car only gets slightly better mileage than the average car in its class, so it's not all that special as far as environmentalism goes.

But don't scoff too hard, because it just might be that we'll all be driving hybrid cars in the not-so distant future.

You might be thinking that we simply don't have a model of fuel-source change for automobiles - so we really don't know what the future will hold - and whether our cars will be powered by natural gas, lithium-ion, or even solar power - or perhaps some combination.

And you're right - there's basically no model for automobile fuel conversion.

But there is a very robust model for home heating conversion.

Today there are at least as many heating technologies as there are fuel types, but 100 years ago, most people used coal and wood.

Hydrogenics Corp. (Nasdaq: HYGS) said this morning that it will cut 50 positions and take a charge of $3 million as a result in the fourth quarter.

The Canadian developer and provider of hydrogen and fuel cell products and services said the 50 positions will be concentrated in the administrative and operational areas to streamline operations and reduce costs.

The company said as a result of its streamlining initiatives it anticipates incurring a charge in the fourth quarter of approximately $3 million, or $0.03 per share, but noted that the cost cutting should result in $5.2 million of annualized cash savings by the third quarter of 2008.

Shares of Hydrogenics (HYGS) were halted in pre-market trading.

Manufacturer of high temperature hydrogen fuel cells FuelCell Energy Inc., (Nasdaq: FCEL) reported before the opening bell Wednesday that received approval to scale up a product that separates hydrogen from a gas mixture while generating electricity.

The Danbury, C.T.-based company said it developed a electrochemical hydrogen separation system for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. FuelCell says its system enables the pure, extracted gas to be sold as fuel for hydrogen vehicles or for industrial uses.

The $1.225 million Phase II contract, supported in part by the U.S. Department of Defense, is expected to be complete by mid-2008.

Shares of Fuelcell climbed 3.43%, or $0.28, to $8.45 in pre-market trading Wednesday.

Even with fears of global warming and a worst-case-scenario of a shutdown of oil from the Middle East, it’s not easy being a green company.

The concept of non-polluting fuel cells powering our cars and trucks seemed too good to be true when it first exploded on the scene nearly two decades ago. Investors in one of the leading hydrogen-cell developers, Ballard Power Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BLDP, TSX: BLD) might be left wondering if commercializing the technology is just a lot of hot air.