I replaced my gas water heater with a heat pump model at the beginning of March and now have about a month of data on my home's fossil fuel usage after the water heater upgrade. Now, my SoCal home is zero-emissions most days, unless we're burning gas to dry laundry. 🏘️⚡🔌💧

Just like in CA, NM proposes to treat gas from livestock manure as "carbon negative", lavishing bigger subsidies on fuels made from ag waste than any other fuels. This is a big market distortion that rewards fueling with manure gas with about 4x the subsidy you'd see for electric fuels.

In fact, the experts who monitor cap-and-trade in California have raised loud alarms that a glut of credits will allow pollution beyond the "cap" in coming years.
lao.ca.gov/Publications...

Researchers at Princeton confirmed that the emissions consequences of abandoning additionality (or any of the other "three pillar" protections) in CA are too big to ignore. You make hydrogen about 2x as polluting as today's fossil hydrogen.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

SoCalGas can no longer try drumming up demand for methane- and hydrogen fueled vehicles by charging its customers for "outreach and education" about the supposed benefits of these vehicles. This marks the end of a 90s-era program that funded SoCalGas' efforts to promote CNG vehicles.

SoCalGas is already busy trying to shape state policy in its interests. For instance, it has pushed agencies to increase incentives for methane- and hydrogen- vehicles and give fuel cards to CNG drivers. The CPUC agrees that shareholders should pay for this lobbying.

In another example, SoCalGas hired a slick consulting firm to help it plan its entry into the carbon dioxide pipeline business. Part of the scope of work was figuring out how to sell its plans to CARB. The CPUC recognizes gas customers shouldn't pay for this stuff because it doesn't benefit us.

We discovered SoCalGas spending millions on consultants to help it profit off hydrogen and other new ventures. For instance, it hired contractors to help lobby for DOE appropriations and to make sure the money comes SoCalGas' way. The CPUC wants SoCalGas' shareholders to pay for this money grab.

Sometimes SoCalGas doesn't even bother hiding the ball. It told the CPUC it wants to hire new roles like “Commercial Development Hydrogen Manager” in its Business Development department, and expected its methane gas customers to pay for that. The CPUC says nope.

Just submitted my claim for the 2015 gas price manipulation settlement. So rare that you get to claw money back from the fossil fuel industry’s ill-gotten profits. Thanks Rob Bonta!

This is why enviro and public health advocates are alarmed at using hydrogen in power plants 👇‼️

A company just got a permit in Indiana for a new power plant that could emit more than 3x as much NOx when burning a high-H2 blend.

One reason I'm not celebrating CA's hydrogen hub: we don't know if its "commitment" to use renewables means anything. The hub plans to use the fed tax credit methodology to judge whether electricity is renewable + the CA hub is lobbying the IRS to use a crap methodology.