Why is Los Angeles building a hydrogen plant in Utah? [Video]

And for tonight’s special report, we turn to Utah, to a smokestack that L.A. Mayor Garcetti once called the “

death cough of gas-based electricity generation.

”

It’s the Intermountain Power Plant — L.A.’s largest source of power, coal-fired and operated by the L.A. Department of Water and Power some 500 miles of transmission lines away in the town of Delta, population 3,678.

When a light bulb brightens up overhead, it’s in part because you had an idea and in part because they put coal in the furnace there.

But not for long. The plant is being converted to burn natural gases — cleaner than coal, but still producing heat-trapping carbon emissions. Once open in 2025, it’ll be the world’s largest hydrogen-fueled generating station, burning an initial mix of 30% hydrogen and 70% natural gas, and aiming for 100% hydrogen by 2045.

Meanwhile, in our own backyard, DWP is

retrofitting the city’s largest gas-fired plant

with turbines …