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The SoCal Gas Community Service Office in Porter Ranch. The company said its Angeles Link project would lower the amount of methane gas stored at the Aliso Canyon storage facility above the L.A. neighborhood, where the largest known methane leak in US history from the SoCal Gas facility occurred in 2015.
This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, State regulators voted Thursday to stop Southern California Gas Co. from charging customers to help pay for planning miles of pipelines that would bring hydrogen gas to the L.A. Basin.
Southern California Gas estimates it would cost about $266 million to study and plan the project — called Angeles Link — and asked the state Public Utilities Commission to allow it to recover those costs through customer rates. The company had proposed a monthly increase of $0.35 on the average residential customer bill over the course of three years. , saying the company had not proved any direct benefit to customers.
The decision effectively halts the project for now, and comes amid a stall in federal funding for hydrogen projects under the Trump administration. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
As global pollution levels continue to climb, the commission’s decision also highlights the growing challenge of transitioning to a cleaner energy supply amid rising utility bills and open questions about the safety and true environmental cost of largely untested technology. Hydrogen is a colorless gas that is considered"clean" because it doesn’t involve carbon, which — when burned to create energy — becomes carbon dioxide, a major planet-heating gas.
A new study from UC Irvine finds using a tablet or TV to distract children can lead to more behavior problems down the line. Why LA college students are ditching $30 Ubers for the Metro Free passes, safer stations, rising gas prices and expanding lines are inspiring a new generation to ditch cars and ride transit. But it takes energy to produce hydrogen, and most hydrogen these days is created by burning fossil fuels.
“Green” hydrogen is created by using clean energy sources like solar and wind to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Most experts see green hydrogen as an important clean-burning fuel for hard-to-electrify industries, such as long-haul trucking and gas-fired power generation. The city of Los Angeles, for example, wants. At the same time, extracting and burning fossil fuels for electricity and fuel also takes water — a growing problem as climate change drives longer and hotter droughts.
SoCal Gas will now have to turn to shareholders or other sources of funding if the company wants to proceed. The company did not directly answer LAist’s questions about whether it would.
“We continue to believe that hydrogen—including clean renewable hydrogen—can help advance California’s energy and climate goals while supporting the long‑term affordability, security and reliability of energy service for customers,” SoCal Gas spokesperson Brian Haas wrote in an email to LAist. Environmental groups celebrated the vote, while emphasizing they see green hydrogen playing a role in the state’s future.
“Residential customers should not subsidize speculative infrastructure for large industrial users,” said Michael Colvin, director of the California Energy Program at Environmental Defense Fund, in a statement. “We look forward to working with regulators, utilities and large customers to build a credible, cost-effective strategy to cut climate pollution from sectors that are hardest to electrify,” the statement read. You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information.
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Climate Fossil Fuels Green Hydrogen Hydrogen Los Angeles Methane Gas Socal Gas
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