As California transitions trains from diesel, questions emerge about use of hydrogen fuel

A NUMBER OF scientists and academics are sounding the alarm about California’s plans to implement passenger rail trains that are powered by hydrogen — an ostensibly green technology that would replace old school diesel on certain railways but which critics say is still dirty, expensive and risky compared with the other ecological alternative, wire-based electrification.

Such opposition is noteworthy, in part, because hydrogen is often thought of as a potential savior on the climate change front. Critics say that, while hydrogen is indeed clean in its application as a fuel (its use in locomotion produces only water vapor as a byproduct), methods for harvesting the gas usually involve extracting and burning the same fossil fuels it is meant to replace — or, where greener methods are applied, a needlessly expensive and wasteful process.