Wednesday, May 22, 2024

For Immediate Release

Contact: Elisa Rivera

(559) 264-3070 Elisa.Rivera@sen.ca.gov

California’s Clean Hydrogen Pathway Moves to the Assembly

SB 1420 will ensure California’s Hydrogen’s Hub Full Potential is Fulfilled

SB 1420 Passes the Senate 30-1, Heads to Assembly

Sacramento, CA – Senator Anna M. Caballero (D-Merced) announced that her bill, SB 1420, passed the Senate today. Senate Bill 1420 ensures the highest environmental standards on hydrogen production and ensures California can produce enough hydrogen to help achieve its climate change goals. The California Air Resources Board states that California cannot reach its emission goals without expanding hydrogen production by 1,700 times the present status of production. In addition, SB 1420 would enable California fully leverage its federally awarded Hydrogen Hub status by unlocking private sector investment estimated at $10 billion in projects created in California.

“California has some of the finest educational research institutions, the most ambitious climate goals in the country and the highest number of electric vehicles and residential rooftop solar in the country and billions of dollars in tax payer funds have been invested in industries to support our climate change goals. Still, California needs a diverse set of solutions to ensure that we can achieve our carbon reduction goals by 2045,” said Senator Anna M. Caballero (D-Merced). “I thank my colleagues for their support of SB 1420 to better decarbonize industries, make our energy grid more reliable, stabilize costs for consumers and create high road jobs to transition workers to the new green economy.

Background:

Ensuring hydrogen is produced in line with California’s strong environmental principles is important. As such, SB 1420 will align the decarbonization of hydrogen fuel with the decarbonization of California’s power grid while going a step further and requiring eligible hydrogen to have a carbon intensity score less than or equal to that of the grid on an annual basis. Specifically, SB 1420 requires that on a statewide basis, at least 60% of hydrogen used in transportation be renewable by 2030. By 2045, the remaining 40% must be a mix of renewable and “clean hydrogen.” The only difference between SB 1420 and California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard is the use of “clean hydrogen” versus “zero carbon resources.” Because the definition of zero carbon resources did not contemplate fuel and focuses mostly on grid reliability, this bill borrows from the federal Inflation Reduction Act definition of clean hydrogen – “hydrogen which is produced through a process that results in a lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions rate of not greater than 4 kilograms of CO2e per kilogram of hydrogen.” SB 1420 also requires clean hydrogen to have a carbon intensity that is less than or equal to the annual average carbon intensity of the grid.

For interviews or inquiries, please contact Elisa Rivera at (559) 264-3070

Senator Anna M. Caballero represents the 14^th Senate District, composed of majority portions of Merced, Fresno and Madera Counties.

* Senator Anna M. Caballero serves as the Interim Representative for the Salinas Valley and San Benito County until 2024 when a newly elected Senator will assume the district