A small California town populated by Latino farmworkers where the average resident makes around $12,000 a year could be a testing ground for a controversial solution to lower greenhouse gas emissions after several wealthier and far whiter communities rejected similar proposals.
The experiment to reduce climate emissions by blending natural gas with hydrogen is taking shape in Orange Cove, a community of fewer than 10,000 residents southeast of Fresno. Natural gas utility Southern California Gas Co. will analyze the project’s results, along with other gas utilities, whose operations were the largest source of climate-heating emissions in California other than gasoline and diesel-fueled cars in 2022, according to the California Air Resources Board.
