Port of Stockton nixes planned hydrogen plant to settle environmental lawsuit
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Port of Stockton nixes planned hydrogen plant to settle environmental lawsuit
The project would have used natural gas instead of electricity. The project was approved by the California Board of Supervisors in September. The decision to drop the project is a blow to the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a spokesman said. The state’s plan to use natural gas to power cars is still in the works, he said, but it won’t be used as a source of energy for the next few years. The California Department of Public Health says it will continue to monitor the project’s progress. It says the decision was made to protect public health and the environment, not to make a profit from the project, which would have been a waste of money. The U.S. Department of Energy says it has no immediate plans to stop using natural gas.
The settlement also says that if BayoTech, the Houston-based company that developed the proposal, still wants to go forward with its Hydrogen Production and Dispensing Project, it will need to prepare an environmental impact report and follow requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
The lawsuit was brought against the port by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity.
The suit, filed in September, alleged that BayoTech was planning to make “dirty hydrogen” instead of trying to produce it from renewable sources. Methane is the main component of natural gas.
“This is dirty hydrogen, delivered by dirty trucks, for potentially dirty uses,” Earthjustice attorney Katrina Tomas said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
BayoTech’s plan had been to source methane from Pacific Gas & Electric pipelines, Tomas said.
“BayoTech would then turn around and sell the hydrogen to folks under the guise that it would be environmentally friendly, but there is nothing environmentally friendly about using fossil fuels to make hydrogen,” she told Stocktonia on Wednesday.
A BayoTech representative could not be reached for comment.
For several years, hydrogen was viewed as California’s — and possibly the nation’s — clean-air salvation.
Vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells are emissions-free. For several years, automakers touted hydrogen cars as better than electrics because they can be refueled quicker, which would make them more popular than plug-ins.
California air quality officials were sold on hydrogen to the point of going so far as to try to create a “hydrogen highway” of fueling stations. While the hydrogen fuel-cell cars are still sold by a few automakers, enthusiasm for hydrogen has waned as batteries have gotten better and cheaper, making electric cars a common sight on the state’s roads.
The decision to rescind the hydrogen project, which the lawsuit alleged would increase climate and air pollution, came during the port’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting Monday.
Deputy Port Director Jeff Wingfield said BayoTech decided not to pursue the port location “due to the litigation and some logistical issues.” The firm will likely build the plant elsewhere in Stockton, which Wingfield said is “a shame because we will most likely have hydrogen fuel cell trucks visiting the port in the near future without a local fuel source.”
Wingfield said the port had viewed the BayoTech endeavor as having the potential to burnish the port’s environmental credentials.
“This was a very small project for the port but one that we thought would benefit net emission reductions,” Wingfield said. “While we understand the concerns, if all of the hydrogen produced was used by local trucks and buses, there would have been a net benefit to local air quality.”
The Port of Stockton, the fourth busiest port in the state, was awarded a $110.5 million grant in October to reduce air pollution in what U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, who helped secure the funding, called the largest federal investment in its history.
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