A plan to convert L.A.\u2019s largest natural-gas-fired power plant, located on the beach near LAX, to a purported cleaner-burning fuel has drawn the ire of an unlikely opponent: environmentalists. <\/p>\n
A lawsuit<\/a> filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by a coalition of environmental groups accuses the city of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power of violating the California Environmental Quality Act when it signed off on a plan<\/a> for the Scattergood Generating Station in Playa del Rey last year. <\/p>\n The $800-million plan would replace two of the plant\u2019s aging units with turbines that can run on a combination of natural gas and hydrogen, which, when produced cleanly, generates no planet-warming carbon dioxide. The DWP has said the plan is integral to meeting L.A.\u2019s climate goals, including 100% clean energy by 2035<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the lawsuit from the nonprofits Communities for a Better Environment, the Sierra Club, the Los Angeles Waterkeeper, Food and Water Watch and Physicians for Social Responsibility says the plan doesn\u2019t adequately define or analyze the project as required by CEQA. What\u2019s more, they say, it will ultimately prolong the life of L.A.\u2019s fossil fuel infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s framed very much as this beneficial, clean, environmentally positive project, and from our perspective, it looks a lot more like the city is investing very close to a billion dollars to keep a methane gas plant on line,\u201d said Theo Caretto, staff attorney at Communities for a Better Environment. <\/p>\n The lawsuit is one of two challenging the city\u2019s plan. A second one, filed last week<\/a> by the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, makes similar claims. <\/p>\n Much of their consternation stems from the fact that the DWP plan provides no specifics about where the hydrogen will come from, or how the highly combustible material will be transported to the power plant and stored there. \u201cThe green hydrogen that would supply the proposed project has not yet been identified,\u201d the DWP wrote in its environmental impact report<\/a>. <\/p>\n That could put it at odds with CEQA, which is intended to inform the public or decision-makers about foreseeable impacts, said Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at UC Berkeley\u2019s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, who is not involved in the lawsuits. <\/p>\n \u201cSo if the project description is not including how much hydrogen will be burned on-site, or using a best-case scenario of hydrogen that masks the worst case of fossil-gas-only combustion, DWP is not providing some important information to nearby residents,\u201d Elkind said. <\/p>\n He noted that when the project was envisioned, the energy landscape was vastly different, and the price of hydrogen has not come down as hoped. At the same time, the price of alternatives such as solar and battery energy storage<\/a> have plummeted and are \u201cnow widely deployed in California and beyond to help stabilize the grid and meet peak power demand, which is ostensibly the role that this power plant is supposed to play.\u201d <\/p>\n Indeed, hydrogen has hit a number of stumbling blocks<\/a> in recent years. President Trump ended a federal tax credit for clean hydrogen production and terminated billions of dollars in funding for hydrogen projects in several states \u2014 including $1.2 billion for California\u2019s hydrogen hub<\/a>, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, which was awarded under President Biden.<\/p>\n This year, Southern California Gas Co. abandoned its plan<\/a> for a hydrogen pipeline to the L.A. Basin, the Angeles Link Project, after state regulators said the utility couldn\u2019t make ratepayers pay for it.<\/p>\n It now seems \u201cvery unlikely\u201d that there will be a robust supply of hydrogen in time for the DWP\u2019s 2029 deadline, said Caretto, the attorney \u2014 and \u201cif there\u2019s no hydrogen there, then this has to operate on methane.\u201d <\/p>\n DWP officials said they can\u2019t comment on pending legislation. But Jason Rondou, the agency\u2019s interim chief operating officer and senior assistant general manager of the power system, said it is \u201ctheoretically possible\u201d that the Scattergood units will have to run on 100% natural gas if no hydrogen supply is available by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that some of this does depend on hydrogen infrastructure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But he stood by the project, saying that it will be an important source of local electricity \u2014 not imported from outside L.A. \u2014 and will help maintain affordability and reliability for the region, particularly during extreme heat that strains the city\u2019s power grid, such as the current high temperatures.<\/a> He pointed to a study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that found it would be \u201cinfeasible\u201d to reach those goals through noncombustion alternatives at Scattergood. <\/p>\n At the same time, the DWP has invested $5 billion in new clean energy projects in the last two years, including solar and battery energy storage<\/a>, Rondou said. The city reached 65% renewable energy last year and is on track for 80% by 2030. <\/p>\n He said the DWP can\u2019t control what happens to the hydrogen industry. But should it take off, he said, \u201cwe are going to have equipment that is ready to utilize it.\u201d <\/p>\n You’re reading Boiling Point <\/p>\n The L.A. Times climate team gets you up to speed on climate change, energy and the environment. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.<\/p>\n By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n In other energy news<\/p>\n Global oil prices are once again skyrocketing as the U.S. and Israel\u2019s war with Iran nears its seventh month. Brent crude climbed to more than $100 a barrel on Wednesday<\/a> for the first time since July amid escalating attacks around the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Houthi rebels\u2019 attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure near the Red Sea. It\u2019s a nearly 40% increase since the start of the war in late February. <\/p>\n As a result, gasoline prices are also soaring, with the U.S. averaging about $4.22 a gallon, and $5.88 a gallon in California, according to AAA<\/a>. But the real story is diesel, which climbed to a record $5.94 a gallon on Wednesday and $7.87 in California. The higher fuel costs are squeezing business in the Golden State, where our massive trucking and agricultural sectors rely heavily on diesel to power equipment, my colleagues Clara Harter and Suhauna Hussain recently reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the U.S. Interior Department has tapped Michael Olsen, an energy advisor with a background in both oil and gas and renewables, to lead the Trump administration\u2019s new offshore energy agency<\/a>, the Marine Minerals Administration, which has helped kill offshore wind projects<\/a>, Politico reported<\/a>. The agency represents a merger of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and will \u201cincrease efficiencies\u201d for offshore leasing, including offshore oil drilling. Olsen previously worked at the Interior Department during the George W. Bush administration and later worked in offshore wind and oil and gas development. <\/p>\n In other climate news<\/p>\n About that heat wave: Temperatures in Southern California climbed into the triple digits Wednesday, but the unusual humidity is what got most of the attention. A combination of high heat and a deep-tropical air mass has created some of the worst humidity the region has experienced in the modern era, climate scientist Daniel Swain told my colleague Rong-Gong Lin II<\/a>. <\/p>\n It\u2019s likely just a preview of what\u2019s to come as this year\u2019s \u201csuper\u201d El Ni\u00f1o gains strength and threatens to bring major rain and damage to the coast. A new study of nearly 1,000 years of coral records indicates that human-caused climate change is making El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 an already powerful climate phenomenon \u2014 even worse<\/a>. <\/p>\n