ORANGE COVE, Calif – After more than two years of feeling ignored, hundreds of rural Fresno County residents felt validation last week when city leaders formally withdrew their support for a controversial clean energy trial.
By a 4-0 vote, the Orange Cove City Council approved a resolution declaring its opposition to a hydrogen blending demonstration project proposed by the Southern California Gas Company with direction from the California Public Utilities Commission.
During discussion prior to the June 24 decision, Mayor Gilbert Garcia cited overwhelming community opposition as the reason for the reversal.
In March 2024, a previous city council (with three members who no longer serve) unanimously adopted a resolution directing city staff to work with SoCalGas on the project.
“We’re here to listen to you, the residents,” Garcia said. “We’re not here to listen to outsiders. They have their opinion too. But what I’m more concerned with is our residents here in the city of Orange Cove. And your voice has been heard, and it has been heard loudly.”
The public outcry was largely voiced by Orange Cove United, a citizen’s group that collected more than 650 signatures from residents opposing the trial and presented them to the city council in April.
One of the group’s leaders, Estela Juarez, told council members during last week’s meeting that residents were “owed an apology” from city leaders for “sometimes speaking to us like we weren’t informed individuals” with regard to hydrogen blending.
“All I ask in moving forward is to please take your residents into consideration, as you have the privilege to represent us in our town of Orange Cove, but you also have the responsibility to protect our safety,” Juarez added.
Juarez then asked the four council members whether they would sign the petition. They all did.
Following the meeting, Juarez said she hoped city leaders “learned their lesson” about the power of community opposition and will not ignore resident voices in the future.
“I hope they know we're in a new era and a lot of us have had enough,” Juarez said.
The new resolution directs the city clerk to transmit a certified copy of the language to both SoCalGas and the CPUC to “officially register the city’s non-support.”
Gas utility ‘respects’ council vote
In an emailed statement, SoCalGas spokesperson Brian Haas said the company “respected” the city council’s decision and was “grateful” for the opportunity to work together.
“Given the large amount of research and real-world experience showing hydrogen blending to be safe at low levels, we will continue working through the CPUC to advance other demonstration projects and establish a low-level hydrogen blending standard,” Haas said.
Haas did not respond to a follow-up question asking if SoCal Gas would no longer pursue the six-month pilot project in Orange Cove, which is projected to cost $85 million.
In 2022, the CPUC directed SoCalGas and other investor-owned gas utilities to propose demonstration projects that would inject low-level concentrations of hydrogen into the natural gas piped to residential stoves, furnaces and water heaters as a statewide decarbonization tool. None have been granted formal approval.
Because hydrogen releases only water and heat when burned, it is considered clean fuel. That’s opposed to natural gas (i.e. methane), a hydrocarbon that contributes to climate pollution.
However, the practice has not been universally hailed as a climate change solution. Studies have shown that hydrogen-blended natural gas can increase methane emissions that exacerbates asthma and is also linked to other respiratory illnesses — especially when used in older appliances.
“We all have a voice, we all matter and we all are important,” Orange Cove United member Alma Figueroa said. “I'm just glad they came to this decision, finally.”