A utility company is experimenting. Its subjects: A Fresno County city’s residents | Opinion
One of California’s largest utilities wants to run an experiment. Its lab subjects: the 9,600 residents of Orange Cove.
Here is hoping those people do not suffer ill health, or worse, from what SoCalGas wants to do.
SoCalGas, the big utility based in Southern California, supplies natural gas to Orange Cove. The company has proposed to state regulators a pilot project to test the feasibility of blending hydrogen into the natural gas that goes into Orange Cove homes and businesses. The goal is to see how well the mixture performs and if any problems develop.
The ultimate goal driving SoCalGas is to meet state targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which come from burning fossil fuels like natural gas.
Orange Cove, 35 miles east of Fresno, is aptly named, as it sits in beautiful citrus groves that attract visitors when the trees are blooming each spring. It is also at the far northern end of SoCalGas’ service area.
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A few years ago, Orange Cove was ranked by 24/7 Wall St. as the poorest community in California, with its poverty rate at 47.8% and its median annual household income at $25,660. That compares to the statewide household median income of $91,905.
The California Public Utilities Commission has encouraged energy companies to investigate the feasibility of using hydrogen to offset natural gas as a fuel. Up to 5% of of a fuel stream could safely be hydrogen, UC Riverside researchers have found. SoCalGas is responding to that directive.
The company portrays its pilot project in positive terms.
“The project would blend clean, renewable hydrogen with natural gas into the existing gas distribution system,” SoCalGas says on its fact sheet about the proposal.
“This project would offer a real-world environment to better understand how clean hydrogen and natural gas can be safely delivered to customers in the future,” the company adds. “This is part of a broader effort by California and utilities to develop a standard for safe hydrogen blending, which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.”
Neil Navin is the clean fuels officer for SoCalGas. “We would not be doing this if we did not believe we could do it safely,” he told me in a phone interview.
Daniel Parra, Orange Cove’s city manager, told Bee staff writer Ramon Castaños that SoCalGas’ project was an excellent opportunity for residents. “The notoriety would be good for the city, get some positive messaging out there,” Parra said.
It was Orange Cove who sought out becoming the pilot community, Navin said.
Hydrogen blending
Navin sees no downsides to the Orange Cove project, which will cost $26.8 million to construct and operate for 18 months.
He says Hawaii Gas has blended hydrogen with natural gas for decades with no problems. Anyone who has ever ordered a cheese burger on Oahu had that meal cooked with blended gas, he points out. And parts of Canada, Europe and Australia use it, too.
Typical gas stoves and other appliances will work fine with the blended gas, Navin said.
And the cost of the pilot will be borne by SoCalGas’ 21 million customers, not just Orange Cove residents., Navin added.
Opponents of hydrogen blending, however, have a number of criticisms:
▪ Hydrogen molecules are smaller than other constituents in natural gas, so hydrogen is more likely to leak.
▪ It also makes pipes and appliance connections brittle, which can also lead to leaking and even explosions. Navin said residential pipelines are low pressure, and that the threat of becoming brittle won’t happen.
▪ When burned at a gas stove, hydrogen creates to more pollutants inside a home. That can worsen health problems residents might have already, like asthma.
“Hydrogen ignites more easily and is more explosive than methane, thus increasing the danger of explosions in buildings,” Physicians for Social Responsibility said in a 2022 report. “It places lives at risk.”
There are questions about whether hydrogen as a heating and cooking fuel is even needed in a residential setting. Physicians for Social Responsibility said other good means for lowering carbon use exist, such as heat pumps and electric appliances.
Another group, Earthjustice, argues that California regulators are wasting time and money pursuing hydrogen when electricity is safer, cleaner and more practical.
Leak monitoring
SoCalGas project manager Blaine Waymire said Orange Cove will be monitored for any leaks. Should an alarm go off or a leak occur, “we will be able to automatically shut that system down and call out a technician to ensure that the area was treated safely,” he told Castaños.
Navin said even a small percentage of hydrogen blended into gas can yield carbon benefits equal to taking 1 million vehicles off the road.
But Rebecca Barker of Earthjustice, the environmental advocacy group, pointed out to me in an email that, at best, blending hydrogen will only reduce greenhouse gases by 7%.
She said the state’s other big utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric and Southwest Gas — are also drawing up hydrogen blending pilots. Those projects “will cost customers in California over $200 million, and they are only the tip of the iceberg of research that would be necessary to determine the feasibility of blending hydrogen in the gas system,” she said.
The real solution, she added, is electrifying homes, not continuing gas use.
If the PUC approves the Orange Cove pilot, the commission should require that regular health assessments be made of residents to ensure no one is getting sick or harmed by the blended fuel.
SoCalGas should also be mandated to make regular checks of homes for leaks. Given the poverty level in Orange Cove, it would not be surprising to learn that most residents cannot afford home upkeep, and piping in their homes might be old and broken down.
SoCalGas has much to prove, not the least of which is good faith. After all, this is the company that used ratepayer funds to lobby against California policies aimed at addressing the climate crisis.
