Hydrogen Looms As Climate Threat

“Hydrogen today is far more a climate threat than a climate solution,” wrote Earthjustice attorney Sara Gersen in The Hill on June 1. “Hydrogen production has a greater annual carbon footprint than the entire nation of Germany. That’s because almost all hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels.”

Her focus was on the fossil fuel industry’s attempt to get tax credit support under the Inflation Reduction Act for generating hydrogen from coal and gas-fired power plants.

But Gersen also has her eye on another hydrogen threat right here in California—the push to extend the carve-out for hydrogen fueling stations in legislation that will reauthorize zero emission transportation funding through 2035.

On May 2, the California Hydrogen Coalition and California Hydrogen Business Council wrote in to oppose the Senate reauthorization bill, SB 84, unless amended to vastly increase hydrogen infrastructure, with a projected goal of 1000 fueling stations statewide.

Current funding plans project 200 stations expected by the end of 2027, which “will have the capacity to support over four times the number of FCEVs automakers project in 2028,” according to the California Energy Commission, which also warns, “Unless global automakers significantly grow sales, state investments in passenger hydrogen stations risk becoming stranded assets.”

According to the Air Resources Board, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles represent “approximately 1% of the 1.5 million ZEVs sold in California” through March 2023, while infrastructure spending per vehicle is 27 times higher for hydrogen.

So, on May 30, Gersen was the lead author of a letter in support of SB 84, on behalf of ten environmental organizations. “We appreciate that the bill does not extend the carve-out for hydrogen fueling stations for passenger vehicles because the State has already developed more of these stations than it will need for the foreseeable future,” the letter to SB 84 author Sen. Lena Gonzalez said. “The state is already building enough fueling stations to support more than 19 times the number of fuel cell cars in the state.”