OPINION:
If you have ever watched the terrible television show that is the floor of the House of Commons, you know there is a segment where the right honorable members of Parliament ask questions about incredibly trivial local matters to the Prime Minister, who is supposed to pretend he cares.
One of the very great benefits of having won the Revolution is that we don’t have to worry about that here in the States. The best feature of governance here in the States is federalism, which means that not everyone has to do or even care about what everyone else is doing.
The presence of three levels of government — local, state and federal — ensures that citizens in other places and with other sentiments are free to pretty much do what they want.
I mention this because today, Southern California Gas, which is North America’s largest gas distribution utility, serving 21.8 million consumers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California, announced that it intends to construct what it is calling the Angeles Link. The Link is a project designed to transport green hydrogen — that is, hydrogen produced exclusively from alternative energy — to and around the Los Angeles basin.
This project is part of its effort to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 while keeping bills affordable for customers.
Some skepticism for net-zero goals is always warranted. It is not clear what the practical effect such goals will have on climate change. Moreover, McKinsey has recently estimated that the global cost of achieving net zero by 2050 may be as high as $275 trillion.
That said, Southern California Gas operates in a State that places a premium on that sort of thing, and it is trying to respond to the wishes of its customers and regulators.
According to the company, the proposed Angeles Link will be the nation’s largest green hydrogen energy infrastructure system and deliver clean, reliable energy to the Los Angeles region. It will support the integration of more alternative electricity resources like solar and wind. It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation, industrial processes, heavy-duty trucks and other sectors of the Southern California economy. It will help meet the climate and clean air goals of California and the region.
Southern California Gas is the right company for this sort of work. It has relationships with thousands of industrial end-users, has as much experience as anyone in developing hydrogen projects, and is committed to a transparent and robust stakeholder process.
The robust stakeholder process might be a challenge here.
The Angeles Link is undoubtedly a project that can help California meet its climate goals. It may provide new economic growth opportunities in the electricity, manufacturing and transportation sectors. It will, if successful, make California the leader in cutting-edge energy technology.
But before it does any of that, it has to get built.
Everyone — policymakers, business leaders, academics, unions and environmental groups agree that green hydrogen is essential to achieving the state’s climate goals.
But it is not clear that everyone will continue to think that once it becomes obvious that the Angeles Link is an energy infrastructure project, more specifically a pipeline. Environmentalists and environmental justice advocates have opposed pipelines carrying oil, carrying refined product, transporting natural gas. They have even opposed pipelines to carry carbon dioxide to be buried and kept underground.
Similarly, they have opposed electric transmission lines virtually everywhere they have been proposed, even though President Biden’s national goal of net zero by 2050 requires that the transmission system be doubled or even tripled in the next 25 years.
At some point, the environmental groups and the not-in-my-backyard crowd will need to decide which is more important to them — addressing climate change or preserving their ability to block all energy infrastructure. Because of the legal, regulatory and political processes used now to delay and obstruct transmission lines, natural gas pipelines, refined product pipelines can and will be used against other pipelines — like hydrogen pipelines.
One of the more challenging and exciting runs in surfing (which is the state religion of California) is the pipeline on the north shore of Oahu. It was given its name by a surfer who noted how much the curl looked like a section of concrete pipe.
Surfing this particular pipeline will no doubt be challenging for Southern California Gas. As a former resident of California who still has a great fondness for the Golden State, I hope it stays centered on the board, stays alert for closeouts and shore breaks, and is successful in its efforts to build the Angeles Link.
• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, is a co-host of “The Unregulated” podcast. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.
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