Contra Costa Hydrogen Projects: Hopes, Hypes, and Threats

Online.  Register here.

Join the Sunflower Alliance May webinar featuring a presentation by longtime energy expert Greg Karras on the six proposed hydrogen projects in Contra Costa County, their current status, and the reality behind the clean energy hype.

These new H2 projects are joining the four already operating in the county.  None of them uses sun or wind for producing the hydrogen, and each of them poses its own dangers to the community and the climate.

The communities of Richmond, Rodeo, Martinez and Pittsburg are all directly impacted.

• Two of these “renewable” energy projects, proposed by the Phillips 66 and Marathon refineries, call for using fossil gas to produce the vast amounts of hydrogen needed for refining biofuels (via a process called steam reforming), which produces significant quantities of greenhouse gases and local pollution, and creates safety hazards.

• The Chevron refinery is also proposing a project that uses steam reforming to produce hydrogen for fuel cells for vehicles.

• In addition, it’s partnering with Raven SR in another project to produce hydrogen from municipal waste—a process that creates a different set of hazards.

• Chevron also wants to build a fueling station that would use compressed fossil gas and hydrogen to produce fuel cells for vehicles, directly competing with progress in converting to battery electric vehicles, which use energy much more efficiently.

• Pittsburg is currently considering a landfill gas-to-hydrogen project.  Sounds beautifully circular, but what are the downsides?

Learn more about these projects—the devil is in the details, after all—and participate in a discussion about community response.  Please join us in this important and timely conversation!