LADWP And Ports Receive Federal Funds To Achieve Carbon Neutrality

Mayor Karen Bass announced Friday that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, along with the L.A. Department of Water and Power, will receive a portion of federal funds awarded to California to use hydrogen gas instead of fossil fuels to reduce their carbon emissions.

The Biden administration also announced Friday that California will receive up to $1.2 billion from the Department of Energy (DOE), designating the state as one of seven national hydrogen hubs. This will allow the state to build and expand projects that use hydrogen instead of fossil fuels.

“This money will be given to the port of LA to transition more trucks and cargo handling equipment to zero emissions and to LADWP as they convert one of their natural gas plants to a clean hydrogen plant,” Bass said.

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Earlier this year, the L.A. City Council unanimously approved plans to convert the city’s largest power plant, the Scattergood Generating Station, from burning fossil fuels to burning green hydrogen.

The process involves renewable energy sources like wind and solar that are used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is then burned to create energy instead of the fossil fuel methane, which releases carbon dioxide when burned. Methane itself is one of the most powerful greenhouse gasses, so when it leaks into the atmosphere it heats up the planet dozens of times faster than carbon dioxide.

Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor of energy and sustainability, said that LADWP is in the process of upgrading the plant’s hydrogen capabilities.

“It is in its environmental root review, and we expect it to be completed later this decade,” she said.

The Port of Long Beach, Sutley added, will at first use hydrogen to power cargo-handling equipment to reduce carbon pollution and smog. Later, the port plans to use hydrogen to power trucks and ships.

Hydrogen Hub

Funding for the California Hydrogen Hub is coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The state submitted an application in April for the funding through Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES), a statewide public-private partnership.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said that this funding allows California to move away from “ambition into implementation” to change how the state produces and consumes energy and “to advance a low carbon green growth future.”

According to Newsom, the funding will create 220,000 new jobs in the state, 90,000 of which would be permanent.

He said the hub would target energy intensive industries like ports, aviation, shipping, agriculture, power plants, cement and steel, shifting them to hydrogen and bringing California closer to achieving carbon neutrality.

Opposition to the Hub

While California leaders celebrated the funding, organizations including California Environmental Justice Alliance, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Communities for a Better Environment, sent a letter to the DOE asking that the funding to the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) be withheld until it meets a set of three demands.

They are demanding that ARCHES remove a non-disclosure agreement required for public participation in the project, that their governing structure include communities that will be affected, and that DOE enforce community engagement best practices.

Ari Eisenstadt, energy equity manager at California Environmental Justice Alliance and one of the signatories on the letter, said it's been an “egregious” process dealing with ARCHES leadership.

“We've participated in every opportunity offered by ARCHES and those have been few and far between and even still, we know almost nothing about the details of the proposal and what we do know is incredibly concerning,” he said. “We know that they're proposing to burn hydrogen in gas fired power plants, which has the potential to increase pollution of nitrogen oxides in impacted communities that are already overburdened with pollution.”

LAist has reached out to ARCHES for comment about the letter.