Letter to the Public Service Commission: Our Hydrogen Concerns

The Alliance is deeply concerned about the costs and impacts of hydrogen as part of our power systems. Today, we sent a letter to the Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) outlining some of those concerns.

​Many of those same concerns were brought up by LPSC Commissioners at the November B/E. Those concerns include the unknown costs related to the development of new pipelines and changing existing power infrastructure to handle hydrogen for combustion, the local air-quality impacts from burning hydrogen and the resulting harmful emissions, and the federal clean energy subsidies allow utilities to gain access to massive hydrogen subsidies without making any meaningful changes to their polluting status quo.​

We encourage the Commission to continue to seek information about emerging technologies outside the context of utility applications. It is tempting to imagine switching one fuel for another as a short-cut to energy transition and decarbonization, but regulators should not be expected to approve technology based on speculation. Nor should regulators accept that hydrogen can affordably reduce carbon emissions and other harmful pollution.

Excerpt From Our Letter:

It was helpful to hear some of the economic perspective regarding hydrogen and its role in decarbonization in Louisiana, at the Business and Executive meeting on November 17th.
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There are various ways to produce hydrogen, each with their own cost impacts. Grey hydrogen (or any of the colors dependent on methane gas, including blue) is subject to the same volatility of the gas market we all experienced last year. These versions of hydrogen do not represent a diversification of our fuel mix. The addition of CCS to grey hydrogen adds further unknowns to the price tag as costs to add another new technology are also speculative at this time. Green hydrogen production may have more understood costs based on known resource costs of renewable energy, but there is a difference in the cost of renewables-based hydrogen depending, for example, on whether the wind is onshore or offshore, or if solar is based in Arizona or Illinois.

It is tempting to imagine switching one fuel for another as a short-cut to energy transition and decarbonization, but regulators should not be expected to approve technology based on speculation. Nor should regulators accept that hydrogen can affordably reduce carbon emissions and other harmful pollution.

We encourage the Commission to continue to seek information about emerging technologies outside the context of utility applications. Along with the attached Texas ALJ Proposal for Decision, we are including Assessing the Viability of Hydrogen Proposals: Considerations for State Utility Regulators and Policymakers, a recent report by Energy Innovation for further insight. While hydrogen may represent a feedstock and high-heat replacement for industry in Louisiana, it appears to be an unreasonable risk to utility ratepayers.

Read Our Full Letter to the LPSC

Energy Innovation Hydrogen Report