Fairfax Climate Action Committee
  • Financial Incentives for Change
  • Fairfax Climate Action Plan — Townwide Zero Emissions by 2030
  • What Can You Do for the Biggest Impact?
    • Get 100% renewable energy easily — go Deep Green! >
      • EASY—Go here to sign up (in minutes)
      • Support Fairfax's Deep Green Champions
    • Drive Electric
    • Replace Disposable Batteries with Rechargeables
    • Ductless Heat Pump
  • Fairfax - What's Your Footprint?
    • electricity
    • waste
    • water
  • What's Already Happening
    • Fairfax Climate Emergency Resolution
    • 2020 Fairfax Resident Climate Survey Results
    • Fairfax Climate Action: ScoreCard
    • 2020-2021 Workplan
    • Climate Safe California Resolution
  • Event Calendar (by Green Change)
  • Blog
  • About
    • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Committee Members
    • 2020-2021 Workplan
    • Join our Mailing List
  • Contact

Another way to reduce your Transportation GHGs

4/8/2021

3 Comments

 
Picture
Here's another idea for close to zero emission transportation; HYDROGEN. There is a bit of controversy over this solution, as, today, hydrogen is produced using some amount of natural gas. I will address that point in a later post. Today, I simply want to alert people to an opportunity that is considered to be net zero emission by the state, and that might be relatively affordable. 

Today, I will simply talk about the affordability issue. 

There may have been others, but for sure, Toyota made a hydrogen car in 2017. Many of these were leased, and have now been returned. Toyota is now selling Certified used Mirai cars. I went to San Francisco and looked at them, and they are priced in the $10-12k range, which is not bad. But, even better, (a) they give you $15,000 card for prepaid hydrogen fuel, and (b) you can get an HOV sticker for them. So, they are basically paying you to take the cars. Also, they are offering 0% interest, so you can pay for it over time, at no interest. Its a pretty sweet deal - IF you can tolerate the hydrogen difficulties. 

(I will mention the big one, since I want to be as responsible and transparent as possible - there is only ONE hydrogen fueling station in all of Marin; the Valero in Mill Valley; but, there are 49-ish around the state, and the state is investing a ton of money to get the number up to at least 200 by 2025. More on hydrogen next time). 

There are also, for those who can afford them, new hydrogen cars, now. Toyota has a new one, as does Honda. Hyuandai has an SUV. I think you can only lease the Honda and Hyuandai, You can either buy the Toyota or lease it. When you buy or lease a new hydrogen car, you get (a) $8,000 Federal Tax Credit; (b) $4,500 California rebate; and (c) HOV sticker. If you get it from Toyota, you also get the $15,000 prepaid fuel, and three years of free service. Sometimes the dealers offer incentives on top of that. 

Full disclosure - I just bought one of these things, and I hoping that others will too, so we can convince somebody to put a hydrogen station in Fairfax. That will be great; Novato gets Costco, we can get hydrogen (and EV charging). 

One last thing about this. The original Mirai was planned to have a feature that allowed you to run your fuel cell car and plug it into your house to power it. They ultimately did not do that, but it can be done. Believe me, as the owner of one of these things now, I have a vested interest in figuring it out!

Whatever you do, Walk, Bike, ride the bus (after vaccination), telecommute instead of going to the office, and, when you are able to buy your next car; make it EV or Hydrogen; they are cheaper than gas cars and they will make you feel better!
3 Comments
Deirdra L Rogers
4/10/2021 10:27:38 am

Walt, very interesting and informative blogpost! I wonder why so few people know about this. Thanks for getting the word out!

Reply
Walt Vernon
4/12/2021 12:02:39 pm

Thank you, Deirdra. Hydrogen is a newer technology than conventional batteries. And, because of that, the costs have not come down as low as batteries (YET). There are MANY advantages of hydrogen cars (range, power, weight) and other vehicles, and I think this will be one of many opportunities to do better than the conventional combustion engines of the past. My post today addressed some of these disadvantages and how they are, even now, starting to erode. Thank you for reading!

Reply
Susanne Chaney
5/6/2021 07:02:35 pm

We had recently to replace both our water heater and furnace. Both are gas. We got energy efficient rated appliances. We have already a convection oven stove and energy star rated electric drier and frig. We will not be replacing our brand new furnace and water heater. We are seniors. We live in a townhome. To change to electric would cost thousands as we would have ton have all the existing duct work and etc plumbing redone. We cannot afford new anything. My husband rides a bike to and from his job as a crossing guard when weather is good
We use our Mini Cooper We do not forsee affording a new car either. Unless someone pays for all these things 100 per cent. I don’t see us affording them. Think about your long term residents who upgraded things in last five years. Do you really expect people to just junk them. Nice idea. Not very practical. In nine years I don’t forsee us having any more money than we do now. Fixed incomes means just that

Reply



Leave a Reply.

      Sign up for our Blog and keep current
      ​on all things climate in Fairfax!

      By having the below box checked you are letting us know you're okay with receiving notices of community events, our blog posts that keep you up to date with the latest global warming news, and steps you can contribute to our town getting to zero emissions by 2030. Yay!
    Submit

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

2021 Climate Action Committee

    Feel free to contact us by providing your email. We'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Submit