The City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County is teaming up with San Francisco International Airport, PG&E in San Carlos and the city of Menlo Park to build hydrogen fuel stations in the three jurisdictions for about $1 million each. C/CAG plans to foot half the bill, while seeking matching funds from the state, C/CAG Transportation Manager Walter Martone said.

“It’s going to be mostly commercial vehicles, shuttle operators and city vehicles right now,” Martone said. “But we will be ready when [hydrogen] does come into public use. It’s kind of the chicken and the egg.”

With hydrogen still in the experimental stages and just about a dozen of the vehicles on Bay Area roads so far, experts say converting will mean less dependence on foreign energy sources, be good for the environment and provide a shot in the arm to the economy.

In a modification to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s original hydrogen highway plan to space fueling stations from Northern to Southern California, the Bay Area has instead begun taking steps to cluster more than a dozen stations to encourage businesses that use and support hydrogen and help develop the necessary infrastructure, National Hydrogen Association spokesman Patrick Serfass said.

San Francisco, which has had a portable hydrogen fuel station for two years, is also on board with the “clustering” idea and plans to begin construction on a permanent station at its Bayview maintenance yard later this year, said Faiz Khan, senior environmental specialist for The City.

That facility, which will store the fuel but not produce it, will cost $200,000, Khan said.

Critics, however, say hydrogen cars produce their own pollution and are inefficient because electricity — often produced by burning fossil fuels — is required to make hydrogen. “Studies have been done that show that you would need 60 percent more windmills or two to four times as many solar panels to run a hydrogen car the same distance as a electric car,” San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association President Sherry Boschert said. What makes a lot more sense is plug-in hybrids that run on gas when the juice runs out, Boschert said.

But San Mateo County, anticipating this problem, is already working to install solar panels at SFO and Menlo Park, and has proposed a biodiesel facility in Pacifica as ways to reduce the county’s overall energy consumption, Martone said.

“What we will do is make sure that wherever we put these [hydrogen fuel stations] in, we will be reducing energy use by a one-to-one correlation,” he said.

PG&E is waiting for the arrival of its high-pressure storage tank in San Carlos. SFO last week signed an agreement to work with the county, and Menlo Park is putting the finishing touches on similar negotiations, Martone said.