Jessica Gable, jessica.gable@sierraclub.org, 352-514-2927
LOS ANGELES, CA – Environmental justice, health and climate advocates are expressing disappointment today, after the Los Angeles City Council voted to move forward with a plan to retrofit the Scattergood Generating Station to burn a blend of methane and hydrogen gas, despite considerable risks.
Advocates and community members attended a hearing last Friday to encourage the Council to vote no on the motion, given the health, climate, safety and cost risks of using hydrogen for power generation. Advocates, who outnumbered industry 3:1 in the comment period, urged the Council to pursue healthier, safer and more cost-effective solutions, including energy storage, transmission, distributed clean energy and demand response. The final amended ordinance includes requirements for LADWP to report back on alternative solutions to hydrogen combustion, as well as guardrails against NOx emissions and use of scarce local water supplies.
“We hope that wisdom will ultimately prevail at the City of LA on this important issue,” said Bahram Fazeli, Director of Research & Policy, Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). “We appreciate the City Council hearing the concerns of frontline communities, and we hope City of LA decision-makers will be responsive to these vital concerns. Investments of this magnitude should only be made to advance quality of life for people of Los Angeles, especially for vulnerable communities. As for the process, the burden of proof that this project is safe is on LADWP, and decision-making protocols should not create obstacles for environmental justice communities to stop potentially hazardous projects.”
Frontline and environmental justice advocates have long urged greater community engagement in the discussion around retrofitting Scattergood, particularly as even burning green hydrogen in a power plant can increase emissions of NOx, a key ingredient in smog, which contributes to respiratory issues like asthma. Leaky pipelines also pose numerous safety risks for nearby communities because of hydrogen’s highly explosive nature. And as an indirect greenhouse gas, leaked hydrogen also has 33 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years.
“We’re disappointed that the council moved forward with the Scattergood Hydrogen project today, as we feel there are a lot of risks and questions that have not been addressed, and we think that there are better alternatives that have not yet been fully explored like demand response, conservation, transmission upgrades, long-duration storage, and efficiency,” said Alex Jasset with Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles, “Truly sustainable and equitable energy solutions are not going to come from the fossil fuel industry, which has demonstrated time and again that they prioritize profits over safety and public health. Real solutions are going to come from impacted and frontline communities whose lived experiences contain a wealth of knowledge that should be centered in policy design.”
"We are deeply concerned that LADWP was given the green light to begin the process to burn a blend of fossil gas and hydrogen at Scattergood given the significant outstanding questions about impacts to air quality, climate, cost, and safety,” said Teresa Cheng, Senior Campaigns Representative for the Sierra Club. “We appreciate City Councilmembers Yaroslavsky, Park, McOsker and Raman for leading the Council’s direction requiring the Department to continue looking into alternatives to hydrogen combustion, and we look forward to continuing engagement with LADWP on clean energy solutions that prioritize public health and safety, especially in environmental justice communities.”
Per the L.A. City Council’s mandate, LADWP must report back on alternatives to the project as well as remaining questions regarding hydrogen’s potential impact on communities, water resources and climate. However, today’s vote cedes Council oversight of the Scattergood hydrogen project to LADWP and its Board, though the Council ultimately retains a right to veto future Board actions with a two-thirds vote.
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