Resistbot
  1. United States
  2. Calif.
  3. Letter

Hydrogen fuel infrastructure is a mess

To: Gov. Newsom, Sen. Cortese, Asm. Pellerin

From: A verified voter in San Jose, CA

August 11, 2024

I am so angry. A year ago we bought a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle thinking it would be better for the environment. And I didn’t want to add another electric car to our already overtaxed grid. When we purchased the car, fuel was $18/kg. Within a month, fuel had doubled to its current rate of $36/kg - meaning it would be too expensive for me to drive my new car. We gave the car to our college age daughter, as she drives about a third of what I do. She’s been driving the nexo for the last nine months. She complains about the lack of available fuel. I got to experience this first hand today. We went to three different stations. The first two stations had zero working pumps - even though the app said they each had plenty of fuel. The last station had one working pump. We waited for twenty minutes while the guy who got there first filled up. As we pulled up to the pump, the pump went from working to the ‘please wait awhile’ screen of death. We called the TrueZero help line, who were able to reset the machine remotely. I am grateful that even though they hold a monopoly, that they are still responsive to their users. I believe the state has spent $10b on hydrogen fuel programs, with another $12b in the works. What is that money going towards??? It certainly isn’t paying for making hydrogen a viable fuel source. Multiple friends have asked how I like owning the nexo and I have to tell them that it sucks. Fuel is hard to come by, fuel is ridiculously expensive, and we can’t travel more than 100 miles from home. There is no guarantee that the one remote fuel station that would allow further travel actually works. Please do something with the coming $12b.

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