Jack Brouwer, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Irvine and director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center, said hydrogen is more effective for longer storage because it doesn’t lose energy over time and can be stored underground easily and cheaply.

A slow-moving emergency is lapping at California’s shores— climate-driven sea-level rise that experts now predict could elevate the water in coastal areas up to 10 feet in just 70 years, gobbling up beachfront and overwhelming low-lying cities.