® Outlook
Comment on Municipal Services Committee Item #1 this evening From Darrell Clarke
Date Tue 4/28/2026 4:29 PM
To Gao, Beilei <[email protected]>
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I spoke to the Pasadena City Council last August 25"' on this same subject of hydrogen fuel cell buses, per my written comment copied below.
This evening I'd like to ask two questions based on the Item #1 staff report section "Operational Evaluation and Performance" on page 9:
1. Why didn't they buy the test battery-bus with more battery capacity and therefore range?
2. Why didn't they consider fast-charging during the day, like LA Metro does? Darrell Clarke
PASADENA CITY COUNCIL, AUGUST 25, 2025
7. FINANCE COMMITTEE: AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT FOR THE PURCHASE OF 17 FUEL CELL ELECTRIC BUSES FROM NEW FLYER OF AMERICA, INC., FOR PASADENA TRANSIT FOR A NOT-TO-EXCEED AMOUNT OF $32,050,255 (Transportation Dept.) I'm Darrell Clarke, here as a Pasadena homeowner and Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Transportation Chair.
The future of buses and trucks is battery electric, not hydrogen, and I'll briefly show why.
I attended the California Air Resources Board's Zero-Emissions Showcase at Angel Stadium's parking lot on June 18. httDS://ww2.arb.ca.eov/events/zero-emissions-showcase-ride-drive-anaheim-ca .
I spoke with ENC (Eldorado): their new Axess EVO-BE has a usable range of 225 miles in California with a 692 kWh battery, in 32', 35', or 40' low-floor buses. https://eldorado-ca.com/axess-evo-be/ Conversely, Pasadena's decision was based on obsolete 2021 data in CALSTART's 2022 study, which presumed only half that battery capacity in its Table 2-4, and therefore not sufficient range for full 1-for- 1 bus replacement which the city wanted.
https://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/2023%20Aeendas/Jan 30 23/AR%204%20Attachment%20A Pasadena %201CT%20Report Finalrev.|3df
Most Southern California transit agencies have chosen battery-electric, not hydrogen fuel cells, including LA. Metro, LA. DOT (DASH buses), Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Long Beach Transit, Culver City Bus, and Anaheim Regional Transit. Pasadena projects tripling to about the same ridership as Culver City,
3.1 million annual trips. China, the world leader in battery technology, has deployed some 700,000 battery-electric buses.
A battery-electric vehicle is 70-80% efficient at converting electricity to motion. But a hydrogen fuel cell wastes at least 70% of that electricity to electrolyze water, compress the hydrogen, and run a fuel cell to power a motor, not to mention the diesel fuel to truck the hydrogen. https://cleantechnica.com/2025/03/ll/the-hYdrogen-bus-illusion-essen-mulheJms-costly-reality/ And is that hydrogen even "green" from renewable electricity? Shutdown of the ARCHES California Hydrogen Hub's federal funding means you'd probably be getting "gray" hydrogen made from natural gas, just emitting its waste C02 someplace else, essentially no better than current gas-fueled buses.
And the very small hydrogen molecule is prone to leaking, itself a secondary GHG.
Please don't invest in an expensive, inefficient, polluting, dead-end technology.
Darrell Clarke
Pasadena, 91103