I've been doing some more digging on this issue, and I may have jumped the
gun when I said that California law requires the retail dispensing of
hydrogen fuel in kilograms. The "workshop" document I distributed a link
to, which summarizes major elements of the law, has a bullet indicating that
H2 is to be dispensed in kilograms. But the law itself, while using only
metric units throughout its text (kilograms and metric tons) does not, as
far as I can tell, explicitly require retail dispensing in kilograms. What
it does require is that retailers report sales to the state in kilograms.
Also, certain trigger points (the definition of a low volume retailer) are
set in metric units. Here's the full bill that got signed into law:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/sen/sb_1501-1550/sb_1505_bill_20060930_chaptered.pdf
So a retailer who sold in pounds and reported sales to the state in
kilograms would not, as far as I can tell, be in violation of this law. And
of course, this law applies only in California.
This just underlines my point that we need to be on top of this important
emerging battlefront. There is still time to influence the future now, and
we were handed an early tenuous victory by the CA legislature and some
European oil companies. That lead could very easily vanish (and in my
opinion, probably will) with a national retail build out of H2 stations.
Someone within USMA needs to research this issue and start crafting a
national strategy that will make the most of our limited resources and
influence. I can try to help, but who else does these kinds of things
within our organization? For example, what bills might be pending in other
states? Are any other potential H2 retailers planning stations? Can NIST
get involved (at least write opinions)? What can we do to cheer on Shell
and BP for dispensing in kg's now? etc.
