It ain't easy driving hydrogen in California - POLITICO

It ain’t easy driving hydrogen in California - POLITICO

It ain’t easy driving hydrogen in California

HYDROGEN HEADWINDS: Fuel cell drivers are an endangered species in California; advocates are hoping for some habitat improvements.

We’ve reported that hydrogen passenger vehicles are on the ropes in California, which has done the most to encourage them.

But even true believers are struggling with fuel costs (up to the gasoline equivalent of $14 per gallon), unreliable service stations and a limited fueling network that some said makes it impossible to travel far from home.

The fueling experience for passenger hydrogen cars is “abysmal,” Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) said in recorded remarks that were played at a workshop hosted by the California Energy Commission yesterday.

Andy Robin, a Toyota Mirai owner, said he loves the car but can’t recommend the experience to others in the Bay Area.

“I tell them, ‘You’re an idiot if you get one, because there’s no hydrogen,’” Robin said at the workshop.

California’s plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2045 calls for a huge expansion of clean hydrogen. It’s expected to play a central role in removing emissions from heavy-duty vehicles in particular.

But when it comes to regular cars, hydrogen is dwarfed by plug-in electric vehicles. There are 65 refueling stations and about 14,000 fuel cell electric vehicles on the road in California, while nearly 292,000 plug-in models were sold in the state this year alone.

The debate over hydrogen’s future in transportation played out in the Legislature this year in negotiations over AB 126, which set aside a portion of a renewable fuels fund for hydrogen refueling stations. Lawmakers ultimately decided to cut hydrogen funding slightly, to 15 percent of the fund.

Automakers and refueling station representatives had complaints of their own, ranging from hydrogen shortages to supply chain problems to a dramatic drop in the value of Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits that affect prices at the pump.

Still, they pleaded with the Energy Commission to stick with the market, which they said would require continued support to be viable.

“Continue incentivizing light duty stations. Because there is a market, it’s taking off now,” said Matt Miyasato, a vice president at Irvine-based hydrogen fueling company First Element and a former staffer at the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

To support fuel cell vehicles of any size, California needs more of everything from hydrogen extraction to fuel production to distribution systems to replacement parts — which today often need to be ordered from Europe, said David Park of the West Sacramento-based Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership.

The state was recently selected by the federal government to be part of a national hydrogen network that is intended to address all those things and more, but it won’t be easy.

“Lots has to go right to make this all work, obviously,” said Tyson Eckerle, senior adviser for clean infrastructure and mobility in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

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CHINA CONNECTION: Gov. Gavin Newsom said after his trip to China last month he hoped Californians would see “more two-way trade, more economic development, more economic growth, more prosperity, more peace.” He’s got his work cut out for him.

Though U.S. trade with China increased last month, it’s still at its lowest in 10 years, reports POLITICO’s Doug Palmer. The drop is driven primarily by a 24 percent fall in U.S. imports from January through September year over year as American companies seek to diversify their supply chains amid rising tension.

The Biden administration says it’s seeking to “de-risk” trade with China, but not to completely decouple. Meanwhile California is pushing for more trade, while being mindful of federal “red lines” and staying within the Biden administration’s policy around AI and chips, for example.

Newsom and top administration officials were in China to bolster trade relationships, particularly in clean energy but also in tourism and other sectors.

“What we’re doing is saying, ‘there’s all this opportunity that exists, there’s all this trade that’s ongoing,’” Dee Dee Myers, director of Newsom’s office of business and economic development, said after a visit to Shanghai’s Tesla factory. “We have a $166 billion trade relationship with China — that’s just California. They’re an important source of foreign direct investment. The Shanghai Chamber of Commerce is largely California companies because there’s so much already in finance, in clean tech, in biotech and all these other sectors that’s really important to our economy.”

California’s trade with China has been impacted by national tensions, but “we don’t do trade policy,” she said of the state. “We just execute the trade relationship.”

The state of that relationship will be on the agenda later this week when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen meets Thursday and Friday with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in San Francisco, ahead of a planned meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping the following week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

GRAVITY POWER: In other California-China energy business news, California-based Energy Vault Holdings announced agreements with five local Chinese governments to develop 1,160 megawatt-hours’ worth of energy storage, according to Bloomberg.

The projects will store energy by lifting heavy objects to provide round-the-clock power. One of the agreements is with the province of Jiangsu, where Newsom visited a wind energy facility and signed a memorandum of understanding two weeks ago. And as we noted in yesterday’s newsletter, energy storage was a big focus of the trip.

METHANE MOMENT: More China climate news: China today released its long-awaited action plan to curb its methane emissions. (It emits far more than any other nation, largely due to its extensive use of coal power.) China committed to put out a plan two years ago at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, but still hasn’t joined the Global Methane Pledge, reports POLITICO’s Zack Colman. The plan covers strategies to monitor and lower methane from a variety of sectors but does not contain specific targets.

Newsom’s got an MOU for that, too: one with Guangdong province meant to facilitate collaboration on methane tracking, among many other topics. California (which has yet to get a handle on tracking methane emissions from livestock, another major source) also plans to launch a global methane monitoring satellite later this month.

TRIP GOOD: Californians have (or at least had) a favorable view of Newsom’s China trip, according to a University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll that was taken in late October and released Tuesday.

Of the 89 percent that offered an opinion on the trip, 50 percent approved and 39 percent disapproved. That’s better than the 44 percent approval rating they gave Newsom’s general performance as governor.

DIABLO CLOCK: Pacific Gas and Electric officially requested federal permission today to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open for 20 more years.

If granted, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval would allow the plant to remain in operation well beyond the 2030 closure date that Newsom and the Legislature set last year, when they canceled plans to close both the plant’s reactors by 2025 over grid reliability concerns.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth objected to the move, saying PG&E doesn’t need to request the entire 20 years.

PG&E spokesperson Carina Corral noted in an email that 20 years is the standard for extension requests at the NRC, adding that the request would “allow the state maximum flexibility to ensure electric resource adequacy.”

Ultimately it will be up to lawmakers to decide whether to stick with the 2030 date.

— In the latest chapter of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s corruption scandal, the lawyer appointed to represent DWP customers after former lawyers were revealed to have colluded with the city has now been accused of misleading the judge to secure the role.

— Fearing more climate lawsuits, fossil fuel companies are going after the Center for Climate Integrity’s efforts to research the costs of addressing climate change at the local level in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

— Fallbrook and Rainbow residents vote today on whether to sign the divorce papers with the San Diego County Water Authority.

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