This Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) would urge the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) to prioritize renewable, clean hydrogen for California.
WHEREAS, California is experiencing the dire effects of climate change; and
WHEREAS, California has long been at the forefront of the clean energy transition, including hydrogen as a core piece with the goal of 200 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025 and numerous ongoing hydrogen production and research projects; and
WHEREAS, The State Air Resources Board noted in its 2020 Mobile Source Strategy planning document, approximately 25 percent of California’s future vehicle mix is likely to utilize hydrogen fuel cells due to the “subset of the vehicle market that will still require frequent fast refueling, particularly in larger vehicle classes”; and
WHEREAS, Heavy-duty trucks represent just 2 percent of the traffic on California roads, but account for 9 percent of the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions, 32 percent of its nitrogen-oxide emissions, and 3 percent of its particulate emissions; and
WHEREAS, Hydrogen has the potential to be transformative for the heavy-duty transportation sector to cut emissions and meet state climate goals; and
WHEREAS, The federal government has also acknowledged the potential of hydrogen, with the Biden Administration’s Hydrogen Energy Earthshot Challenge aiming to reduce the cost of hydrogen by 80 percent within one decade and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) aiming to establish a network of regional hubs that will deploy clean hydrogen technologies at scale; and
WHEREAS, The IIJA appropriates $8 billion over five or more years to establish at least 4, and up to 10, regional hydrogen hubs to build self-sustaining hydrogen economies of producers, infrastructure, and users, administered by the United States Department of Energy, with a 1:1 cost share from award recipients; and
WHEREAS, The Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) has been formed in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development and the University of California as California’s public-private hydrogen hub consortium to accelerate the development and deployment of clean, renewable hydrogen projects and infrastructure; and
WHEREAS, ARCHES is applying for the IIJA funding to generate California’s clean hydrogen ecosystem; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature urges ARCHES to prioritize renewable, clean hydrogen for California, focus its efforts in communities with the largest pollution burden for an environmentally just transition, invest in energy systems and hydrogen production and distribution infrastructure through a multisector approach, develop public policy that enables early markets scalable with private capital, and prioritize the hardest-to-abate sectors with the largest emissions profiles to create economically sustainable markets; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
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