Stop California Absurd Hydrogen Car Subsidies Before Approving Federal Fire Aid

Governor Gavin Newsom has requested $40 billion in federal aid to assist California in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires last month. As a Pacific Palisades resident, I can attest the devastation is catastrophic and funds are desperately needed. However, the Trump administration is poised, understandably, to tie a lot of strings to any money it agrees to provide. The list of potential strings is too long to list but suffice to say Trump will not give billions to California on the one hand while California wastes billions on the other. 

It is well documented the state has been wasting billions on a bullet train to nowhere, and blew billions on unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic. Los Angles spends billions building and buying homeless housing while cutting the budget for its fire department and leaving a reservoir in the Palisades, built to fight fires, empty awaiting a mere $130K repair, resulting in hundreds or thousands of homes burning down for lack of water.

Another example of wasteful spending the Trump administration should insist stop is the state’s absurd spending on hydrogen fuel cell cars.  To date, the state has spent close to a billion dollars promoting Hyundai’s Nexo and Toyota’s Mirai cars as part of the state’s “green new deal” effort to unilaterally change the earth’s temperature. The money goes to foreign car manufacturers in Japan and Korea, but none in the United States.

There is a fatal flaw that dooms the car project which the state chooses to ignore. Owners cannot charge their hydrogen fuel cell cars at home.  This is the feature people appreciate most about electric cars. They can easily and inexpensively charge their cars in their own garage while sleeping. Hydrogen cars can only be charged at a hydrogen fuel charging station. Thus, if you are looking for an alternative to a gas-powered car, why would you ever choose hydrogen over electric?

It gets worse. Not only can you not charge it at home, there are only 25 working pumps in the state, and the number keeps going down, not up. They are closing due to technical and supply chain problems. The technology is just not ready for prime time – and likely never will be.  And then you have the chicken and egg problem whereby there is not enough demand. There are only about 12,000 such cars operating in the state.  That is out of a total of 33 million cars in California.  (About two million are electric.) 

It gets even worse. The cost of refueling is about $200! On a per mile basis, it is three times more expensive than gas, and seven times more expensive than electric.

It gets even worser: Hydrogen is not really green. Most hydrogen is produced using natural gas, a process that emits large amounts of carbon dioxide. The alternative—green hydrogen made from electrolysis—is far more expensive and requires enormous amounts of electricity. By the time hydrogen is produced, compressed, transported, and dispensed, about seventy percent is lost.

And finally, the cars are not ready for prime time.  In October 2024, Hyundai recalled nearly 1,600 Nexo hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. The recall addressed a defective pressure relief device that could break and cause hydrogen leaks, posing severe fire risks. Owners were advised to park their vehicles outdoors and away from structures until repairs were completed.  It is no wonder California essentially stands alone among states in supporting hydrogen fuel cell cars. 

It is such a mess that vehicle owners have banded together to sue the state and the car manufacturers. They allege that they were sold a bill of goods. “Sellers of the Toyota and Hyundai cars told buyers that the number of fueling stations was going up, not down, and that the price of hydrogen was going down, not up,” said lead attorney Jason Ingber of the Ingber Law Group,  “As a result, owners lose money every day they drive their car, and the car has virtually no resale value.”

In addition to suing the manufacturers, Ingber would like to hold the state accountable for its role in this fiasco, though sovereign immunity makes that difficult. “At a minimum, the state needs to stop funding this,” Ingber said.

But the opposite is the reality.  In December Newsom announced a new $1.4 Billion investment in green vehicles, including funding another 96 hydrogen fueling stations. This would bring the total to a whopping 121, except each state funded station appears to close within 18 months of opening.

California fire victims desperately need the support of the federal government.  But before Congress or Trump approves a dime in federal funding, they must demand that California reexamine its own spending, cancel wasteful projects, and redirect those funds to the rebuilding.