and neighboring Glendale, where city officials have been talking up hydrogen as a possible solution to their own gas plant. Gavin Newsom hopes to allocate $100 million in state funds for green hydrogen. The governors of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming - two Democrats and two Republicans - are making plans to apply for some of the funds, as is a coalition of Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Los Angeles, meanwhile, is just one of several places looking to win a share of $8 billion in federal “hydrogen hub” money that the Biden administration is preparing to distribute. The American Gas Assn., an industry trade group, released a report last month arguing that pipelines and other gas infrastructure will be crucial for transporting and storing clean fuels. SoCalGas is the nation’s largest gas utility, but it’s just one of many companies making the case that hydrogen and biofuels can play a key role in zeroing out planet-warming emissions. Similar stories are playing out across the country as fossil fuel companies scramble to secure their place in the energy transition. “I’m going to be continuing to look for positive steps from them, as well as making sure we’re using our enforcement authority when needed.” They have some new management,” Reynolds said. “I’m hopeful that SoCalGas will be a good partner. When I asked Reynolds, the agency’s president, whether she sees SoCalGas as more of a roadblock or a partner in confronting climate change, she responded, “We will need everybody playing a role.” That skepticism stems in part from the gas company’s history of fighting climate action - a history that resulted in a $10-million fine from the Public Utilities Commission last month. The gas company has also made big investments in biofuels sourced from landfills, wastewater treatment plants and massive dairy farms - an environmentally controversial effort that got a boost last month when the California Public Utilities Commission approved its first-ever regulation requiring gas utilities to source about 12% of their fuel from non-fossil sources by 2030. The company envisions supplying green hydrogen not only for power plants, the ports, long-distance trucks and heavy industry, but also potentially for home heating and cooking. This is a major point of contention between climate activists and SoCalGas. Climate activists say we ought to “electrify” as much of the economy as possible, and only then turn to clean fuels to fill in the gaps. Think about it: We’re going to use clean electricity to produce hydrogen that will then be burned to produce electricity? Some industries may need hydrogen, but others can use solar or wind power directly - such as electric cars for transportation or electric heat pumps for home heating. Another consideration is that making green hydrogen isn’t exactly efficient.
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