California Regulators Signal Ratepayer Protection in Initial Rejection to SoCalGas - CleanTechnica

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has recommended denying Southern California Gas Company’s (SoCalGas) request to charge customers $266 million for studying and planning the Angeles Link Project, a pipeline intended to transport hydrogen fuel into the Los Angeles Basin. This initial rejection highlights concerns over the project's escalating costs, which increased from $92 million to $266 million during the planning phase, and the lack of clear benefits to ratepayers. The CPUC emphasized that approving such costs prematurely, while the project remains in early development, would be inappropriate. If the final vote upholds this decision, SoCalGas would either have to abandon the project or have shareholders bear the financial risk instead of customers. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club have criticized the project for its high costs and questioned the viability of large-scale hydrogen infrastructure, noting that green hydrogen requires substantial renewable energy that might be better used directly to replace fossil fuels. They also opposed the idea of passing these costs onto gas customers who would not directly benefit