Governor Newsom statement on Trump administration’s decision to cut hydrogen hub funding

This cancellation forgoes an agreement that garnered over $10 billion in primarily private sector cost share, threatens over 200,000 new family-sustaining jobs and undermines a program slated to save nearly $3 billion in health costs per year, improving the health of Americans that have suffered from some of the worst air quality in the nation.  

“The cancellation of ARCHES is vindictive, shortsighted, and proof this Administration is not serious about American energy dominance,” said U.S. Senator Alex Padilla. “Walking away from ARCHES threatens the future promise of hydrogen energy and will guarantee energy costs continue to rise for families while the rest of the world surges ahead in its development. California will not back down—we’ll keep leading on clean energy where this Administration has chosen to abandon American leadership.”

California and ARCHES will continue to work with our 400+ partners to develop a renewable hydrogen ecosystem that will enable multiple industries to cost effectively transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

How we got here

• The 2022 Scoping Plan identified the need to scale renewable hydrogen 1700x to meet the AB 1279 statewide target to reduce GHG emissions by 85% below 1990 levels and the carbon-neutrality target no later than 2045.
• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish at least four hydrogen hubs, including one renewable.
• GO-Biz partnered with the University of California (UC), State Building and Construction Trades Council, and Renewables 100 to co-found the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES), an LLC structured as a non-profit purpose-built to compete for and implement a federal hydrogen hub.
• ARCHES put out a call for proposals to feed into our statewide application for DOE funding and received over 100 detailed, technical proposals, valued at over $56 billion.
• DOE selected ARCHES on October 13th, 2023 to negotiate up to $1.2 billion in federal funding for California’s renewable hydrogen hub.
• ARCHES became the first hub to sign a hydrogen hub cooperative agreement with the DOE, on July 17, 2024, the largest such agreement in DOE history.

California’s climate leadership

Pollution is down and the economy is up. Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 – even as the state’s GDP increased 78% in that same time period all while becoming the world’s fourth largest economy. 

The state also continues to set clean energy records. California was powered by two-thirds clean energy in 2023, the latest year for which data is available – the largest economy in the world to achieve this level of clean energy. The state has run on 100% clean electricity for some part of the day almost every day this year.

Since the beginning of the Newsom Administration, battery storage is up to over 15,000 megawatts – a 1,900%+ increase, and over 25,000 megawatts of new resources have been added to the electric grid.