HomeBlogNewsAdvocacyCalifornia Air Resources Board (CARB)Letters to CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld and CARB Chair Mary Nichols with Nine Recommendations for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Development

Letters to CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld and CARB Chair Mary Nichols with Nine Recommendations for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Development

On June 12, the CHBC and 32 member signatories sent a letter to Secretary Jared Bumenfeld encouraging the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to consider hydrogen and fuel cell development as a pillar of its strategy to address the economic devastation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. A similar letter with 33 member signatories, was sent to CARB Chair Mary Nichols to include in its Scoping Plan update and other programs nine recommendations to help drive renewable and green electrolytic hydrogen market development
The nine recommendations in the letters were:
  1. Establish a Renewable Gas Standard that requires each gas corporation in California to procure at least 20% of its gas from renewable sources.
  2. Adopt a Strategic Plan for accelerating the production and use of renewable and green electrolytic hydrogen in California.
  3. Establish near and long-term storage targets, including technologies that produce green electrolytic hydrogen at the gigawatt scale to achieve cost competitiveness.
  4. Direct cap and trade revenue to fund programs that incentivize renewable and green electrolytic hydrogen market development through programs like grants or financing support, as have been employed in the dairy sector.
  5. Call for green electrolytic hydrogen to be considered a zero carbon-emitting storage and power generation resource for purposes of implementing SB 100 and the Executive Order on carbon neutrality
  6. Establish a critical consumption program that encourages hydrogen production to support grid reliability and integration of renewable generation.
  7. Call for electrical corporations to file a petition at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to file tariffs for the removal of the noncoincident peak demand charge.
  8. Encourage the Department of General Services to fuel switch from natural gas to renewable gas.
  9. Implement of all recommendations related to hydrogen fuel cell transportation included in the Draft Assessment of CARB’s Zero Emissions Vehicle Programs Per Senate Bill 498, in addition to establishing a state target of 1000 hydrogen fueling stations by 2030.