This commentary is by Greg Pierce of St. Albans, a civil engineer who served as a reserve officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He’s now retired, and has written five novels.
Recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared no fossil-fuel-powered motor vehicles will be allowed to be sold in California after the year 2035. Clarifying news releases advise that California will be allowing sale of only plug-in electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles.
Readers following Vermont government’s confusing struggle over how to address the Vermont law titled Global Warming Solutions Act 2020 will recall that in years 2021 and 2022 (to date), Vermont legislators and executive branch appointees have conducted themselves like blindfolded contestants in a hypothetical game show wherein they circle a large, live animal and, by touch only, try to identify the animal they are dealing with.
Conspicuous among fumbling attempts of Vermont government apparatchiks to find realistic answers to address Global Warming Solutions Act 2020 is their refusal to mention what is far and away the cheapest, cleanest, safest, most abundant and easily obtainable energy source on Earth: hydrogen. The closest they’ve come so far is to pay modest lip service to following the California energy model in developing a Vermont energy model, except, in abstracting the California model, they’ve scrupulously avoided mentioning hydrogen by name.
Simple arithmetic. 2035 minus 2022 equals 13 years to get serious about a realistic and easily attainable energy solution.
First off, forget about plug-in electric vehicles. EVs are a troublesome distraction that will never win wide public acclaim. Batteries too heavy, too dangerous as to fire and explosion, too environmentally destructive as to source materials, too expensive to buy, replace and dispose of, too wasteful of valuable citizen personal time to recharge, too wasteful of public funds to build new recharging stations when fueling stations already exist — ready to be adapted and converted from fossil fuel facilities to hydrogen fueling facilities.
Hydrogen is soon to be available, close by. Plug Power is midstream of new construction of a green hydrogen production plant at the town of Alabama in Genesee County in upstate New York. This plant will use hydroelectric power from the Power Authority of the State of New York to electrolyze water and release green hydrogen.
The hydrogen can be super-cooled to liquid form for safe storage and transportation. Presently, Vermont imports most fossil fuel by tanker truck. Future import of hydrogen could also be by tanker truck from upstate New York.
Note that in the event of a highway accident in which a tanker is ruptured and fuel is released, one of two possible scenarios will likely occur. If it’s a fossil fuel tanker, there will likely be a fiery explosion with great property damage, along with environmental damage by fossil fuel seeping into the ground to contaminate groundwater. If it’s a hydrogen tanker, liquid hydrogen will not burn; rather, it will slowly convert to gas form and quickly rise into the atmosphere to conjoin with oxygen molecules and form pure water vapor.
So, what can Vermont government do to arrive at a best-case clean energy solution that fulfills the objectives of the Global Warming Solutions Act 2020 law? As stated, earlier, put EVs out of mind and turn attention onto hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles.
In California, there are already over 12,000 FCEVs on the road being served by 48 hydrogen fueling stations. That’s a lot of existing experience that Vermont can easily tap into. California already has extensive, detailed regulations regarding design, construction and operation of hydrogen fueling stations. Vermont doesn’t have to reinvent that wheel.
What we can do is pass legislation governing establishment and funding of a Vermont state/public corporation to kick off a steady transition from fossil fuel to hydrogen over the next 13 years.
The Vermont state/public corporation would first seek federal funding — seed money enabled through recently passed congressional legislation. The new money will soon be available to drive new clean energy solutions.
Early Vermont public awareness and support can be garnered in several ways through a new Vermont state/public corporation:
1) Offer grants to existing fossil fuel stations interested in adding hydrogen fuel dispensers.
2) Offer grants to existing motor vehicle sales groups to carry hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles in their line of vehicles for sale and to add technical staff to service FCEVs.
3) Offer private citizens generous grants to assist in purchase of new hydrogen vehicles.
4) Arrange for Vermont agencies, such as the state police and Agency of Transportation, to use federal grant money to purchase new hydrogen vehicles.
5) Offer Vermont towns generous grants to assist in purchase of new hydrogen vehicles.
6) Offer grants to Vermont electric power companies to construct new energy storage systems by which the present overabundance of solar power can be temporarily stored as liquid hydrogen. This step would ultimately allow Vermont to go to all micro-grids and drop off the precarious and unstable regional/national electric power grid.
7) Offer grants to existing and likely new pipeline suppliers of heating gas to convert to pure hydrogen gas for home heating and cooling.
8) In concert with Habitat for Humanity, furnish funding to construct many new hydrogen homes throughout Vermont, following the example of Mike Strizki’s New Jersey Hydrogen House.
9) Fund Vermont television, radio and print ads informing the public on hydrogen’s advantages.
Finally, all of the above can be accomplished with federal funds, which should help avoid the usual and customary antipathy of naysayers who will surely come out of the woodwork to challenge and denounce any state-funded approach proposed to address the requirements of Global Warming Solutions Act 2020.