By Caleigh Wells for KCRW.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

LA is betting its clean energy future on a giant hole in the ground.

That hole next to Dockweiler Beach is large enough to fit a Macy’s department store. It’s at LADWP’s Scattergood Generating Station, and it used to be filled with one of several gas plant units until it was demolished in 2017. It’s been empty ever since.

“At the time, we said, ‘Well, why are we going to rebuild a unit that would be totally dependent on natural gas, when we are planning to be 100% clean energy in the future?’” says Jason Rondou, LADWP’s director of power system planning.

In February, LA City Council unanimously decided to spend $800 million to turn Scattergood from a methane gas plant into a hydrogen plant. The city is trying to meet an ambitious goal to run on 100% renewable energy by 2035. The first phase of that plan will be built in this hole. 

t’s the latest example of Scattergood’s history of adaptation. The oldest units in the middle of the plant were built in the 1950s and take 12 hours to fully turn on. The units behind it from 2015 are cleaner, and they turn on in 10 minutes.

Decades ago, this plant used to run all the time. But with so much energy coming from solar and wind now, the plant is mainly used for backup in major heatwaves.

“Over the course of the year, we use it about 20 or 30% of the time,” says Rondou. “In the future, we estimate that we'll probably use it between 1 and 5% of the time, meaning it's rarely used. But when it's used, it's needed.” In an emergency like a wildfire or an earthquake, LA needs a power source that can turn on with the flip of a switch. Today, natural gas does that. But now, the plant is adapting again.

“Based on what we know, today, the way to provide that renewable emergency backup power is with green hydrogen,” says Rondou.

The plan is pretty simple: Instead of heating up methane gas to create electricity as it has done for the past 70 years, the plant will heat up hydrogen.

Once the hydrogen unit is installed, the plan is to decommission the original gas units next to it installed in the 1950s. 

“Combustion is just like any combustion as far as hydrogen goes, but we’ve got to remember that hydrogen doesn't have any carbon in it. So that's the beauty of it,” says LADWP Director of Power System Engineering Louis Ting.

The hydrogen the plant generates will be “green,” meaning it’s created by clean sources like wind and solar energy.

But carbon-free doesn’t mean it’s completely safe for people living nearby, say environmental activists.

“What we're concerned about is the combustion of hydrogen,” says Alex Jasset from Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles. “Because that's where the [nitrogen oxides] emissions come from. It's where a lot of the explosion risks come from.” Nitrogen oxides, or NOx emissions, are some of the notorious ingredients in smog. And since hydrogen combusts at higher temperatures than methane, that chemical reaction is more likely to happen with a hydrogen plant, leading to an increased likelihood of air pollution from the plant.

But Rondou says LADWP shouldn’t be the focus of Angelenos’ smog concerns. Its plants make up about 1% of NOx emissions. By 2035, he estimates it’ll be 0.1%. “That's very different from the airport across the street,” he says, referring to nearby LAX International Airport. “The jets coming in and out have uncontrolled NOx.”

Another concern environmentalists have raised is leaky pipes. That’s a risk that comes with anything combustible traveling through a pipeline, and the risk is higher with smaller molecules like hydrogen, which can fit through smaller leaks. Plus, hydrogen explosions can make bigger booms.

“It's very hard to detect once it does leak. And so we're concerned about the possibility of these leaks forming due to embrittlement,” says Legal Fellow Theo Caretto with Communities for a Better Environment.

In response, LADWP’s Ting says hydrogen as a fuel technology is decades-old. The space shuttles have run on hydrogen. The hydrogen-fueled Toyota Mirai first launched almost nine years ago. Scientists have gotten good at minimizing that risk.

“I don't think Toyota would be producing hydrogen vehicles if that is an issue,” Ting says. “And they're the ones that actually have customers go into hydrogen fueling stations [and] plug the hydrogen pipeline into a vehicle.”

The city is hoping to complete phase one of the project by 2029. The plant will continue burning gas for several years after that, but the end goal is eventually to burn hydrogen entirely and use 100% renewable energy by 2035.


Caleigh Wells wrote this article for KCRW.


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School buses are getting cleaner in Washington state after this year's legislative session.

Lawmakers in Olympia passed House Bill 1368, which will fund the purchase of zero emission school buses.

Rep. Tana Senn, D-Mercer Island, said the program is getting off the ground quickly.

"As we work towards that long-term goal of all new school buses being zero emission, we're kick-starting this year with $40 million in grants to school districts in overburdened communities," Senn explained.

Going forward, Senn noted school districts will have to purchase zero-emission vehicles once the total cost of ownership is equal to or lower than the cost of diesel vehicles. The state is leveraging the state's Climate Commitment Act resources to fund the transition of its 10,000 school buses.

Devin Denney, director of transportation for Highline Public Schools in King County, which already has electric school buses in its fleet, said he has driven the electric buses and talked about some of their benefits from a driver's perspective.

"You're not competing against that engine noise, the kids aren't competing against the engine noise," Denney observed. "It's a much quieter bus all the way around. The major advantage, of course, is that there's no tailpipe emissions with an electric bus, so our kids' health is better protected."

Senn emphasized health studies have shown there are negative health effects from diesel vehicles for kids, and it is easy to understand why.

"If you think about kids waiting to get on their bus in front of an elementary school and you have this line of buses idling, letting out diesel fumes right at the height of a little child, it becomes obvious that this is probably not the most healthy thing for our children," Senn added.


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Today, in honor of Earth Day, climate advocates are asking California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to rally around a plan to put a $15 billion bond measure on the November ballot.

If passed, the bond measure would fund a range of climate resiliency measures.

Sam Hodder, president and CEO of the Save the Redwoods League, said March was the tenth month in a row to break monthly heat records.

"I think Earth Day is a terrific opportunity for the broader public to recognize how nature is critical for resilience, for our quality of life, for our mental and physical health, and for our communities more broadly," Hodder outlined.

Two similar bills to put a bond measure on the ballot are under consideration in Sacramento, Assembly Bill 1567 and Senate Bill 867, but they have been stalled since last summer. The bond would finance many programs, including some to restore wetlands that guard against sea-level rise, and to remove dead wood in forests to guard against mega-fires, which Hodder noted have killed 20% of the giant sequoias in recent years.

Opponents pointed out the state already faces a budget deficit and cannot afford to take on more debt. But only 5% of California's old-growth coastal redwoods remain, mostly due to aggressive logging many decades ago.

Hodder argued the giant trees can be critical ingredients in the fight against climate change because they trap so much carbon.

"Redwood forests sequester more carbon per acre than any other forest system in the world," Hodder emphasized. "We have the opportunity to transition the redwood forest from something that is vulnerable to climate change to something that is helping to solve and address the climate crisis."

Experts blame climate change for California's wild weather over the past few years, which has been marked by extreme drought, devastating fires and flooding rain.

A new report from the National Wildlife Federation warns that the effects of climate change in the Quad Cities, along the Iowa-Illinois border, will be severe.

But researchers got the public involved in studying to find ways to head off some of the most pressing concerns.

The report says climate change means a warmer, wetter future for the Quad Cities, which straddle the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois.

But rather than repeat what experts have already been saying about drastic flooding along the Big Muddy, Prairie Rivers Network River Health and Resiliency Organizer Nina Struss said researchers and Quad Cities residents brainstormed solutions to tackle the effects of climate change.

"Flooding and flash flooding were the top concerns," said Struss. "Extreme heat was also a big concern, as well as drought and other extreme weather events."

Researchers combined that information with hard science at the University of Illinois to create 3D models depicting what climate-induced flooding along the Mississippi could look like in the future.

The survey also asked people to identify which geographical areas and populations are most at risk from the effects of climate change, and worked with the community on solutions to mitigate some of them.

Struss said this research proposes what are known as nature-based solutions to combat the effects of climate change - restoring, preserving and even expanding existing ecosystems, like wetlands and tree canopies. But creating more eco-friendly infrastructure, too.

"Can we work to maybe have our pavements that we're putting in be more permeable, so that they can absorb that water and have that higher water-holding capacity?" said Struss. "Can we focus on areas to plant more native plants that have stronger root systems, versus ones that have shorter root systems, to help with that water-holding capacity?"

Struss said this research isn't a one-off. It will continue to change, she said, as the climate changes, the needs become more clear, and the effects more drastic.

She said progress in addressing climate change relies on more research, education and funding.




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