The California Hydrogen Car Owners Association (CHCOA) will be making a stop in Lewis County on their “Water-to-Water Trip on the Hydrogen Highway.”
The event will be held at the Lewis County Transit main office located at 212 E. Locust St. in Centralia on Tuesday, Sept. 16, from 3 to 5 p.m. There will be an exhibition of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, informational displays and pizza for all attendees.
The six fuel cell electric vehicle drivers will have just come from the Renewable Hydrogen Alliance conference in Portland earlier in the day. The following day, they will continue on their drive north to Canada, stopping at several locations along the way for promotional visits, including all of the state and provincial capitols, and the two hydrogen facilities in Washington: Lewis County Transit and the Douglas County Public Utility District in East Wenatchee.
Drivers kick off their trip on Sept. 12 in San Francisco before traveling north. For the first time ever, hydrogen drivers will travel all the way to British Columbia in their own hydrogen cars, according to the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Partnership.
“We wish the California Hydrogen Car Owners Association great success in their upcoming tour. The group will travel on the Hydrogen Highway (Interstate 5) from California to British Columbia in order to further highlight the important role that clean, renewable hydrogen can play in the state’s and the nation’s energy future,” Tyson Eckerle and Gia Vacin of the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development said in a news release.
CHCOA is an all-volunteer 501(c)(6) organization created in 2023 with 220 members. Its mission is to build upon the foundation created by the current hydrogen car owners’ groups by diligently and courteously advocating for hydrogen cars and hydrogen car drivers.
Lewis County Transit is in the process of constructing the Port of Chehalis Hydrogen Production & Fueling Station, which received approximately $2 million from the Washington state capital budget for the next biennium, according to previous Chronicle reporting. Once the site is operational in the spring of 2026, the station will supply approximately 750 kilograms of hydrogen per day to Lewis County Transit and other local municipal fleets. An additional 1,250 kilograms per day will be available to regional public fleets that require hydrogen but do not produce their own fuel.
