SoCalGas Proposes Green Energy System To Retire Aliso Canyon

NORTHRIDGE-CHATSWORTH, CA — Southern California Edison on Thursday announced a hydrogen energy infrastructure plan that could eventually phase out the Aliso Canyon natural gas facility.

The project — dubbed "Angeles Link" — would introduce renewable electricity sources to decrease the city's reliance on natural gas, diesel and fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas production, the utility company said.

The program would convert up to four natural gas power plants to green hydrogen, the production of which is powered by renewable energy and touted as a way to cut carbon emissions, according to Reuters. The program could help bring renewable energy to hard-to-electrify industries, the utility company said.

The project could displace up to 3 million gallons of diesel fuel per day and eliminate up to 25,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide per year, SoCalGas said.

The project could be a major step toward closing the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, which produced the largest methane leak in U.S. history in 2015, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The proposal has broad local support, Los Angeles city council member John Lee said.

"Angeles Link is the first real proposal I’ve seen that can substantially decrease the need for natural gas with green energy without compromising grid reliability. This proposal has received the support of elected officials from both sides of the aisle, utility workers, academics and leaders of our local business community. I support the goals of this proposal because it will help us get closer to achieving the City’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2035 without compromising energy reliability or hurting jobs," Lee said.

Local authorities, activists and residents have long asked for the full closure of the Aliso Canyon facility. Even still, the California Public Utilities Commission recently increased the facility's natural gas storage capacity.

"This is a positive first step by SoCalGas toward meeting my continued demands that the utility develop a better vision for the region, one that includes facilitating the ultimate closure of Aliso Canyon," Lee said.

However, environmental protection activists with Food & Water Watch Los Angeles criticized SoCalGas for touting the project as "green," responding that hydrogen requires 9 kg of water for every 1 kg of hydrogen produced, and the region is in the midst of a mega-drought that a UCLA study said Tuesday is the most extreme in at least 1,200 years. The group added that hydrogen development has the potential to perpetuate fossil fuel infrastructure.

"Californians are not blind to SoCalGas' profiteering," the group's director Alexandra Nagy said. "Time and again SoCalGas has shown a willingness to destroy our climate and health while jacking up rates to make profit by any means necessary. We would be foolish to let SoCalGas sell us on schemes like green hydrogen that divert us from real energy solutions and hijack our water resources."

City News Service contributed to this story.