Davis Enterprise - In West Sac, LaHood backs fuel-cell research, port expansion
LaHood did so during a Wednesday visit to the California Fuel Cell Partnership after riding a hydrogen-powered bus at the nearby Port of West Sacramento alongside Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and local officials.
LaHood said that when the federal transportation bill is at last renewed it would include more support for more alternative-fuel vehicles and “reflect the values of the people of California.”
“This is money well-spent,” he said of hydrogen fuel cell work. “This is the kind of clean-burning energy people want and that people can afford.”
A year ago, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the axing of funding for hydrogen fuel cell research for vehicles. He said it would not be a practical solution for 10 to 20 years, both because of the time needed to develop the cells and infrastructure.
Instead, Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said that the Department of Energy would spend money on technologies with a more immediate payoff.
The move represented a dramatic about-face. In 2003, President George W. Bush predicted that “the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” On Earth Day 2006, he came to West Sacramento to further sing the praises of the technology.
LaHood said that he thought California remained “ahead of the curve” in its commitment to fuel cells and that the technology deserved support.
“I'm going to talk to Secretary Chu about that and invite him to come out here,” he said.
The California Fuel Cell Partnership's members include both the the Departments of Transportation and Energy, industry and local government entities, including UC Davis.
Thompson last week signed a letter supporting the funding of fuel cell research. On Wednesday, he said that the partnership, as well as researchers at places like Humboldt State University, was “paving the way for the kind of transportation we're going to rely on.”
LaHood was shown an early hydrogen fueling station, a cutaway Nissan SUV powered by fuel cells and fuel cell-powered highway construction lighting.
He appeared particularly impressed with the zero-emission fuel cell bus with electric drive decorated with bees and butterflies. The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District bus cost more than $2 million.
“That's about as quiet of a ride as I've ever had on a bus,” LaHood said, adding later, “That's what DOT is looking for, in terms of bus transportation.”
The fuel cell partnership's executive director, Catherine Dunwoody, said that while the Department of Energy has backed away from other fuel cell research for passenger vehicles, it continues to back the bus program.
Meanwhile, while the Obama administration has been “very supportive” of electric drive research, it had given a cold shoulder to fuel cells specifically.
Dunwoody said that fuel cells made sense particularly for long-range, larger vehicles, and should be part of the array of clean-energy solutions that the country pursues. California will have 20 fueling stations accessible to the public by the end of 2012.
“It doesn't make sense to take anything off (the table) at this point,” she said.
In 2004, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a hydrogen fueling station on the UCD campus the site of a media event touting such vehicles as the way of the future. UCD has since seen a dramatic decline in federal funding for its fuel cell research of late.
Joan Ogden, director of the campus' Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program, estimated that from a peak of $250,000 to $350,000 annually, from 2002 to 2006, federal funding had dropped to less than $100,000 annually.
Ogden welcomed the support LaHood voiced for fuel cell technology.
“Secretary LaHood's support could be very important in helping support crucial city-scale pre-commercial deployment of fuel cell vehicles and (hydrogen) infrastructure over the next five years,” she said in an email message.
A growing port
At the port, LaHood spoke with officials in the shadow of parts for a wind energy project in Solano County. He called the funding for the port “as good as any investment we've made anywhere in the country.”
A $30 million grant is paying for improvements at the ports in Oakland, Stockton and West Sacramento. Here, $5 million of the port's $8.7 million share is going toward a new mobile crane.
When it arrives from Austria at the end of the year, it will enable the port to get into the cargo ship business. For now it moves only bulk goods, like rice, cement, building materials and grain.
The port's management was mired in conflict until 2005, officials said, when the City of West Sacramento and Yolo County, which had previously share control with the the city of Sacramento and Sacramento County, took over control. SSA Marine of Seattle has since been hired as terminal operator.
The port covers 181 acres with another 300 available. A new metal recycling exporter has been proposed for the site, along with a plant to make pellets from scrap and surplus wood, diminishing the need for coal at power plants in China and elsewhere, and biofuels plants.
The channel from the port to San Francisco Bay is 43 miles long. Of that, 35 miles measure 30 feet deep. The port is working to secure U.S. Army Corps on Engineers funding for a three-year dredging project to deepen the channel to 35 feet at a cost of $140 million.
If completed, 75 percent of the world's shipping fleet will be able to visit the port when fully loaded. Right now, just 25 percent of cargo ships can come and go if fully loaded.
An Army Corps study found the port's economic impact to be $25 million to $50 million annually.
“This port's incredibly important,” Thompson said “It's important for agriculture, it brings in building materials, it creates jobs. It takes trucks off the highway, which is good for the environment and reduces highway traffic.”
Rail plans
LaHood also made a point of defending California's $43 billopn high-speed rain plan, into which the federal government has sunk $3.6 billion. Earlier this month, the State Legislative Analyst's Office warned the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles may never be completed.
LaHood called criticism of the project “baloney,” adding that Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government are committed to seeing the project through.
“I don't care what's been written about high-speed rail in California â€" it's all not true,” LaHood said.
“We would not be making these investments in high-speed rail, in ports and in hydrogen technology unless we felt they were good investments.”