California to get up to $1.2 billion in federal funds to expand hydrogen energy projects

In a highly anticipated announcement, President Biden on Friday named California as one of seven recipients of a $7-billion federal hydrogen hub grant program geared toward accelerating the nation’s clean energy efforts and ambitious climate targets. “California’s Hydrogen Hub will cut pollution, power our clean energy economy and create hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs.” California was among more than 30 applicants in the competitive initiative, called the U.S. Though officials in California, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., hailed the program as a pivotal moment in the nation’s move toward carbon neutrality, critics expressed concern about hydrogen’s potential as a source of clean energy. That didn’t stop officials in Los Angeles from gathering to celebrate the news on Friday, including Mayor Karen Bass, who said the hydrogen hub program “brings us one step closer in advancing our clean air goals.” In fact, a major component of California’s hydrogen hub will be centered on Los Angeles, where officials will be focused on decarbonizing power plants, ports and trucks, according to Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor for energy and sustainability. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach first announced their ambition to be the first in the world to have zero-emissions cargo handling equipment and trucks six years ago, Seroka said, noting that “today’s announcement is truly that major step toward the zero-emission goal, and toward decarbonizing the entire maritime supply chain.” The city’s hydrogen-fueled goals dovetail with Newsom’s own climate ambitions for California, including mandates to achieve carbon neutrality no later than 2045, to deliver 90% clean electricity by 2035 and to ban all new gas car sales by 2035.