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Environmental groups are speaking out ahead of a vote Tuesday that could repower a Southern California natural gas plant to burn hydrogen. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will decide whether to accept the environmental impact report on upgrading the Scattergood Generating Station in El Segundo to burn up to 30 percent hydrogen, and more in the future. L.A. has set a goal to use 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2035.

Julia Dowell, a senior campaign organizer with the Sierra Club, said the plan has some big drawbacks.

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"Our biggest fear is that this is essentially a push to extend the life of fossil fuels, because if this hydrogen doesn't materialize, then you're just spending a lot of money for methane gas plants, which isn't a climate solution," she said.

The agency said the project is necessary to provide dependable, local energy generation to meet rising electricity demand. Clean-energy advocates say they are also concerned about the water demands, and worry that the hydrogen won’t be “green”, that is, produced using renewable energy.

Dowell says the city should change gears altogether.

"We have proposed a combination of battery storage, demand response and distributed energy resources like rooftop solar, combined with storage that could meet the same capacity needs as the current project they're proposing," she continued.

LADWP has three other gas plants that could be converted in the same fashion as Scattergood. Sierra Club is planning to speak during the public comment period at the hearing on Tuesday.