L.A. City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Mitch O’Farrell, and Joe Buscaino introduced a motion to authorize the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and the L.A. Ports to apply for federal funding to make Los Angeles a regional “green” hydrogen hub. An initial draft of the motion shared with Food & Water Watch included guardrails to ensure hydrogen production would not perpetuate or support dirty energy systems like natural gas or factory farm gas, but these were stripped from the motion ahead of its introduction. 

Without these provisions, utilities could easily use hydrogen development to perpetuate and prop up fossil fuel power plants in Los Angeles that would otherwise retire with the transition to clean energy. This is a key flaw of any hydrogen development project. Burning hydrogen (whether in a power plant or people’s homes) can produce six times more nitrous oxides than burning methane. This harmful pollutant can cause respiratory illness and is a key pollutant in the formation of smog. LADWP has expressed interest in retrofitting the Haynes, Scattergood, Harbor and Valley natural gas plants to burn hydrogen gas despite fervent community concern that this will increase environmental pollution in overburdened communities.  

“Without important guardrails, even green hydrogen will be a smokescreen for fossil fuel development in the guise of clean energy,” Food & Water Watch Los Angeles Senior Organizer Jasmin Vargas said in response to today’s motion. “Hydrogen is being used by fossil fuel interests to maintain their dangerous pipeline and energy infrastructure, propping up a system of dirty fossil fuels like fracked gas. Climate justice advocates have made it crystal clear that hydrogen does not belong at L.A.’s power plants and hydrogen with no safeguards against fossil fuel development or biofuels is unacceptable. This motion is a betrayal of Los Angeles communities who deserve equitable, accessible energy solutions and not costly, energy-intensive, water-intensive scams like this “green” hydrogen proposal.”

The motion also fails to address hydrogen’s intensive water usage in a drought identified as the worst in 1,200 years. “Green” hydrogen utilizes electrolysis to break water molecules apart, requiring 9 kg of water per every 1 kg of hydrogen produced. California is already a home for water-heavy industries, including factory farms, industrial agriculture and fossil fuel extraction, and the state’s water supply is dwindling. 
Investor-owned utility giant SoCalGas recently announced its intention to begin the “Angeles Link Project,” an initiative building out “green” hydrogen to power the Los Angeles Basin. SoCalGas has also promised to mix hydrogen with natural gas in its forthcoming H2 Hydrogen Home in Downey, drawing fierce criticism from environmental advocates who point to the move as another opportunity for the utility to expand gas infrastructure at Aliso Canyon, Playa Del Rey and Ventura. 

​Bloomberg Article on Hydrogen ‘Hydrogen Is Every U.S. Gas Utility’s Favorite Future Savior’​

Updates and Actions
California Senate Bill 1486 - In an eleventh hour reversal, the California Senate Appropriations Committee passed SB 1486, the bill to close SoCalGas’ Aliso Canyon storage facility, after they saddled it with numerous amendments gutting the bill’s efficacy. Among the bill’s casualties are the 2027 shutdown timeline and any language creating a moratorium on Aliso Canyon’s use as anything other than a last resort. Climate activists immediately slammed the amendments. Press: Daily Kos, KCET, Food & Water Watch
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Calls to Actions

• Sign and Share our petition to tell Governor Newsom to Shut Down the Playa del Rey Gas Storage Facility!
• Help us get organizations to Sign-On to our letter telling Governor Newsom to decommission the SoCalGas Playa del Rey storage facility!
• Every time you smell gas, call 1-800-CUT-SMOG or 1-800-288-7664
• Join us at the virtual and in person events below!

In 2015, I was horrified to see how comfortable SoCalGas was being negligent to folks in the North San Fernando Valley. This community was the home of the largest gas blowout in U.S. history. I later learned that SoCalGas had an even older gas facility in my community sitting on the Ballona Wetlands surrounded by residents in West LA.

​SoCal Gas has owned the Playa del Rey gas storage facility since 1953 and the facility has a dangerous history. Since 2003, the surrounding area has experienced oily “mist”, a vent stack explosion, and an oil well blowing open. Since 2007, it has been discovered that gas water has been seeping into the water table, that there is a connection between their gas injections and the leaks, and that the facility has had “massive regulatory failures”. On January 11th, 2019 an oil well on a construction site in Marina del Rey blew open, sending natural gas about 100 feet in the air surrounding a heavily populated area next to the marina. The well was capped after a reported 10 minutes, but not before an estimated 100,000 cubic feet of natural gas was released.

Los Angeles has the most polluted air in the nation and, beyond climate pollutants, natural gas storage facilities are major emitters of nitrogen oxides which contribute to ground-level ozone, acid rain, and smog. Exposure to nitrogen oxides is linked to respiratory irritation and infection, it can cause or worsen bronchitis, emphysema and existing heart disease, as well as cause labored breathing, and reduce life expectancy.

The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) reported in 2018 that Playa del Rey is one of the highest risk gas storage facilities in California due to its proximity to homes, businesses, schools and LAX. It also found the facility is at risk for fire, chemical explosions, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis. The facility is surrounded by fault lines, some within 2 miles. In addition to threatening the nearby ecological reserve, The Playa del Rey facility has around half a million people living within 5 miles of it (the radius in which Aliso Canyon victims were evacuated from), and it represents only 1% of the gas storage in California. This facility is a disaster waiting to happen.

SoCalGas has had 68 years to do right by our communities, proving time and time again that they are not capable of being good neighbors. The cities of Los Angeles, Culver City and Santa Monica, as well as Los Angeles County have called on the Governor to develop a timeline and plan for closing down the Playa facility.

The recent IPCC report found that strong, rapid and sustained reductions in methane emissions are needed to keep a 1.5C warming limit within reach. At the Cop 26, two dozen additional countries have signed up for a global methane pledge vowing to cut emissions of methane 30 percent by 2030. Climate chaos demands immediate and significant investment in clean, renewable energy in order for California to achieve 100 percent renewable energy and zero emissions by 2045.

It is time for Governor Newsom to act like a real climate leader and close these dangerous facilities down, stop any expansions, and hold the CPUC accountable to Californian's whom they are supposed to protect. Click below for calls to action! And if you smell gas, call 1-800-CUT-SMOG or 1-800-288-7664.​

Updates and Actions
California Senate Bill 1423 - We support Senator Stern's California bill to close the loophole for Oil and Gas in the Coastal Act. This bill passed through the State Sen Natural Resources and Water Committee and it just passed unanimously through the Sen Appropriations Committee.

​California Senate Bill 1486 - We support Senator Stern's California bill to shut down Aliso Canyon. We Thank Senator Allen for Co-Authoring the bill. We need to send a loud message from Los Angeles to Sacramento: we demand a deadline to close Aliso Canyon! Governor Newsom must keep his promise and ensure this dangerous facility is closed. Without Newsom's leadership, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will continue to backslide on this goal and let SoCalGas off the hook! 

​Senator Stern's bill will 1) put a moratorium on the use of Aliso Canyon returning it to an asset of last resort and 2) require the CPUC shut down Aliso Canyon by 2027. 3) Would prohibit additional use of the Playa del Rey natural gas storage facility as a result of a moratorium on natural gas operations at, or the closure of, the Aliso Canyon facility.

This bill will have its 2nd Hearing which will be heard in the State Sen Appropriations Committee on May 16th, Monday at 10am. We will also be making calls to key legislators on the Appropriations Committee on Thursday, May 12th to urge the following senators to vote YES on SB 1486; Anthony J. Portantino (Chair), Steven Bradford, Sydney Kamlager, John Laird, and Bob Wieckowski.

​Gas Infrastructure in the Ballona Wetlands Restoration Request for Qualifications - California Department of Fish & Wildlife released a notice that states they plan on starting permitting and design procedures for a 60-acre portion of the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve as part of their overall industrial alteration of this fragile marshland ecosystem. 

There is no rationale stated as to why this particular parcel of land, very close to the SoCalGas Tank Farm,  has been selected, but they did include information that the project would involve: “removing and relocating an existing gas line.”   

So much for the State and the allies of this proposed project continuing to claim that this construction project masquerading as a “restoration” has “nothing to do with the gas storage facility.”   We’ve reviewed the background documents, and this latest announcement underscores what we’ve known all along. Click here to sign up to be kept informed of actions needed to stop the installation of new fossil fuel infrastructure through this questionable publicly-funded guise of a “restoration.” 

Calls to Action

• Sign and Share our petition to tell Governor Newsom to Shut Down the Playa del Rey Gas Storage Facility!
• Help us get organizations to Sign-On to our letter telling Governor Newsom to decommission the SoCalGas Playa del Rey storage facility!
• Every time you smell gas, call 1-800-CUT-SMOG or 1-800-288-7664
• Join us at the virtual and in person events below!

The LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to send a formal letter to the Governor at there January 7th meeting with two asks. First to fast track the shut down of Aliso Canyon, the SoCal Gas storage facility and site of the largest methane gas leak in U.S. history in which tens of thousands of Angelenos were poisoned by toxic chemicals and forced to flee there homes for months. Second, at the urging of County Supervisor Janice Hahn, the board included the request for a feasibility study to look at shutting down the PdR facility as well. Aliso Canyon unequivocally showed the grave threat these facilities pose to the public. The PdR facility's location with at least 500,000 ppl living within 5 miles and LAX's boundary only a mile from the facility, creates a massive risk to Los Angeles. A blowout at PdR has the potential to dwarf the horrors that played out at Aliso Canyon. Therefore, it is great to see local elected officials begin to take this threat seriously and begin standing up for the public over SoCal Gas' profits. 

Of course SoCal Gas still has it defenders. Chief among them Cyndi Hench former president of PdR/Westchester Neighborhood Council and a longtime apologist for SoCal Gas. Hench was quoted in a recent Argonaut article using the same tired talking points of gas shortages despite the fact countless municipalities manage fine without storing these toxins in there communities including San Diego, CA. It also ignores the fact our city operated for nearly 2 years without Aliso Canyon, a facility 12 times the size of PdR. If LA could survive without the largest it certainly can survive without the smallest. This is an old threat SoCal Gas uses to scare local politicians into bowing to their will and fight any attempts to move away from gas. She then goes on to make an odd pivot arguing since the geology in the area is well suited for gas storage we must store gas there. I fail to understand the logic that just because something can be done there it must be done there. The only reason the PdR facility is there is not to provide the community with natural gas, it is to provide the large industrial customers like Chevron and SoCal Edison cheap gas so they can continue to exacerbate the climate crisis. 

An LMU* professor also weighed in using the "bridge fuel" argument. This argument would hold more weight if in concert there was an argument to nationalize the this fossil fuel infrastructure. Otherwise it is just another SoCal Gas talking point to hinder any progress away from a fossil fuel economy. As long as SoCal Gas has a profit motive they will never stop advocating or scaring Los Angeles into maintaining these facilities. Further, they will also always be able to find ways to either manipulate or trick other members of the community to spew these talking points for them. Our government leaders need to stand up to these powerful interests and move us forward to cleaner energy future. 

​*LMU has received financial donations from SoCal Gas in the past

On Feb. 12 Mayor Garcetti announced that he plans to phase out methane gas at the three coastal power plants. This announcement came after years of community engagement with LADWP as well as the energy brought by the Sunrise Green New Deal movement.

You can read a local perspective in the Argonaut here: 

​https://argonautnews.com/the-green-new-deal-comes-home/

Here is an LA Times report after the announcement: 

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garcetti-dwp-gas-plants-20190212-story.html 

Last week the state of CA and City of Los Angeles has reached a tentative settlement with SoCalGas for 119.5M dollars. SoCalGas will directly benefit for 26.5M that will be used on methane capturing technology at factory farms in the central valley. The idea that SoCalGas will financially benefit from their role in poisoning tens of thousands of Angelenos is disgraceful. No money from the settlement should be investing in infrastructure that will directly benefit SoCalGas. Some money is allocated for health studies and monitoring. 7.1 million is going to provide air filtration systems in "environmental justice" communities throughout LA County. Instead of paying 7.1M to clean the air for those communities why don't we #ShutItAll and stop poisoning the air to begin with. We don't need to choose between having energy or poisoning a portion of our population. We can have energy and clean air, we just need political will. Los Angeles and the state of California needed to do better. You can let them know by commenting on the settlement HERE

Dr. Jeffrey Nordella is launching a new study to look at the Benzene levels of victims of the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas disaster. The study is desperately needed in the wake of a deposition a SoCalGas representative gave recently in which the individual recalled “levels of benzene that were pretty high in earlier days … they just quit testing for benzene entirely,” Benzene can have severe impacts on human health and the World Health Organization says "no safe level of exposure can be recommended."

A new study finds methane gas emissions have been greatly under-reported by at least 63%. New study estimates we lose 2.3 percent of our gross production. Almost a percent higher than the EPA's official number. It is likely these estimates could be too low as the study primarily focused on where gas was produced and not where it was consumed. A thorough study of our entire natural gas system could show an even greater percentage of leakage. This is troubling because "once the natural gas leakage rate hit between four and five percent of gross US natural gas production, natural gas is about equivalent to burning coal from a climate perspective." The only way to ensure our energy is safe for our health and the environment is to move away from all fossil fuels immediately. The future is today.

On May 2, 2018 SoCalGas PR team wrote an op-ed in The Argonaut. We strongly reject SoCalGas new efforts to re-frame the debate around consumer choice. SoCalGas objections to moving away from fossil fuels has nothing to do with consumer choice and everything to do with their bottom line. Here is our rebuttal to the op-ed, portions of which were published in the Argonaut on May 16, 2018

Protect Playa Now is launching a community air monitoring program.  We are have designed monitors that will allow the community to collect data on the air quality.  Our goal is to place 200 units throughout the communities of Playa del Rey (PdR), Playa Vista, Marina del Rey in the immediate area surrounding the PdR methane storage facility.  Please help us raise funding to get this project off the ground. Every little bit helps.  Thank you for your support.  

In October Tulsi Gabbard introduced a bold and necessary piece of legislation commonly referred to as the OFF Act (H.R. 3671 Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act). We are proud of the efforts of our coalition partners Indivisible CA43 and Food and Water Watch for successfully lobbying Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) to co-sponsor the legislation.  Maxine joined area representatives Ted Lieu (CA-33) and Karen Bass (CA-37) in supporting this important piece of legislation.  We do not have to choose between a healthy safe environment and having energy. The OFF act will ensure that no communities will be forced to live with dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure in their neighborhoods threatening their public health.

The Environmental Health Tracker app is now available for residents living around the Playa del Rey (PdR) methane storage facility.  Download it now and report the symptoms from toxic exposure to chemicals leaking from the PdR facility.  This data combined with data collected from Protect Playa Now's planned neighborhood monitoring program will provide the community with the information necessary to protect ourselves from the toxic cocktail emitting from the SoCalGas PdR facility. You can download the app for Apple or Android devices.

On April 14, 2018 Protect Playa Now hosted a Health and Safety Forum at Holy Nativity Church in Westchester.  Community members heard from Dr. Jeffrey Nordella about the health risks posed by the chemicals leaking from natural gas storage facilities and the toxic exposure victims of the Aliso Canyon disaster continue to deal with.  Andrew Krowne announced the release of the Environmental Health Tracker app for community members around the PdR natural gas storage and Diego Wuethrich spoke about a new monitoring initiative PPN is launching.  It was a great event and a huge thanks to all the coalition partners and volunteers that made it a phenomenal success.  We could not have done it without you 

The Colorado School of Public Health completed a study in Colorado that showed a significantly increased cancer risk for people living near oil and gas operations. They found a person living near oil and gas wells are over 8 times more at risk to developing cancer than highest allowable thresholds under the EPA permit. We need to change our energy system and economy now.  We should not have to choose between having energy and our health.  We can have both with some ingenuity, leadership and collective will.  The time is now.  Lets work together to build an energy system that meets our needs without poisoning our people.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) wants to waste hundreds of millions of public dollars to rebuild the Scattergood power plant with soon to be obsolete natural gas technology.  That money would be far better spent on incentive programs that allow residents of Los Angeles retrofit their homes to lower energy costs and to invest in renewable energy production and battery storage.  Synaspe just released a report outlining 2 ways in which Los Angeles can reach 100% renewable by 2030.  Why spend hundreds of millions to update a facility with technology that will be obsolete in about a decade.  It is not just moral reprehensible to have public dollars continue to invest in technology that exacerbates the global climate change crisis, it is fiscally irresponsible to waste so much money on an extremely short term solution.   Contact LADWP and tell them not to spend 630 million dollars on our past and instead invest in our future.