By MATTHEW DALY and MARC LEVY (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Large-scale clear power initiatives from Pennsylvania to California have been chosen by the Biden administration for a $7 billion program to kickstart improvement and manufacturing of hydrogen gas, a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda to gradual local weather change.
His aim is to ascertain seven regional hydrogen hubs to assist substitute fossil fuels akin to coal and oil with cleaner-burning hydrogen as an power supply for automobiles, manufacturing and producing electrical energy.
Biden is anticipated to make the official announcement throughout an economic-themed go to to Philadelphia on Friday.
The White House calls clear hydrogen “essential to achieving the president’s vision of a strong clean energy economy” and net-zero greenhouse fuel emissions within the U.S. by 2050.
“As a clean fuel, hydrogen complements the role played by other clean energy sources, like wind and solar, to help the U.S. reduce emissions in energy-intensive sectors of the economy: steel and cement production, heavy-duty transportation, and shipping,” the White House stated in an announcement.
The seven hubs, which embody initiatives in 16 states, will spur greater than $40 billion in non-public funding and create tens of 1000’s of good-paying jobs, the White House stated, together with many high-paying union jobs.
There had been 23 finalists for the hydrogen gas program. The initiatives chosen are primarily based in California, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Illinois. All however the California and Texas hubs embody initiatives in a number of states. Pennsylvania has initiatives in two separate hubs.
The infrastructure regulation Biden signed in 2021 included billions of {dollars} to develop so-called clear hydrogen, a know-how that trade and clean-energy advocates have lengthy pushed as a strategy to cut back planet-warming greenhouse fuel emissions produced by fossil fuels.
Some environmentalists name hydrogen a false resolution as a result of it regularly depends on pure fuel or different fossil fuels as feedstocks.
Energy corporations say fossil fuels can function feedstocks if the initiatives seize the carbon dioxide produced and maintain it out of the environment, a know-how that has but to be produced at industrial scale.
States and companies have been competing for federal {dollars} within the new Energy Department program, which can create regional networks of hydrogen producers, shoppers and infrastructure. The intent is to speed up the provision and use of the colorless, odorless fuel that already powers some automobiles and trains.
Among these chosen had been the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, primarily based in West Virginia, and the Philadelphia-based Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub. Pennsylvania, a battleground state of the best significance to the Democratic president in subsequent yr’s election, is in line to profit from each initiatives.
Biden has made Philadelphia a daily cease for each official and marketing campaign occasions, and companions within the proposed Philadelphia-area hub have labor unions which might be key Biden supporters. The West Virginia-based hub contains main Pittsburgh-based pure fuel corporations which might be lively within the area’s prolific Marcellus Shale reservoir, together with the dad or mum firm of the operator of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who muscled approval of the $6.6 billion pipeline by means of Congress in an uncommon settlement with the White House this yr, hailed the Appalachian hub.
“This means West Virginia will be the new epicenter of hydrogen in the United States of America,” he stated of the hub, which can obtain as much as $925 million in federal spending. “West Virginia will be on the leading edge of building out the new hydrogen market while bringing good-paying jobs and new economic opportunity to the state.”
The Appalachian hub will prolong to Ohio and features a $1.6 billion facility below development in northern Pennsylvania that’s working to supply near-zero emissions hydrogen from pure fuel.
“This is a big, big deal for … Appalachia in particular, because these facilities are all based in areas where coal was king,” stated Perry Babb, president of KeyState, an proprietor and developer of the Pennsylvania web site.
Partners within the Appalachian hub say it might produce hydrogen from methane utilizing warmth, steam and strain whereas capturing the carbon dioxide it might generate.
The Mid-Atlantic hub, which incorporates New Jersey and Delaware, will obtain $750 million and can make hydrogen by means of electrolysis — splitting water molecules utilizing renewable power sources akin to wind and solar energy, in addition to nuclear energy.
The two largest initiatives are in California and Texas and can every obtain as much as $1.2 billon.
The Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems in California will produce hydrogen from renewable power and biomass. The challenge is meant to supply a blueprint for decarbonizing public transportation, heavy obligation trucking and port operations — key emissions drivers within the state and main sources of air air pollution.
The Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub will likely be centered in Houston, lengthy the power capital of the U.S., and plans large-scale hydrogen manufacturing from each pure fuel and renewables.
The Minnesota-based Heartland hub, which incorporates initiatives in North and South Dakota, will obtain $925 million because it seeks to decarbonize fertilizer utilized in agriculture and advance use of unpolluted hydrogen in electrical technology and for chilly local weather house heating. It additionally plans to supply fairness possession to tribal communities and native farmers.
The Midwest hub in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan will obtain as much as $1 billion and can use hydrogen in metal and glass manufacturing, energy technology, heavy-duty transportation and sustainable aviation gas. The hub plans to make use of renewable power, pure fuel and nuclear power.
The Pacific Northwest hub, primarily based in japanese Washington, will prolong to Oregon and Montana and can use hydropower and different renewable assets to supply clear hydrogen.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., referred to as the $1 billion hub “great news for the Pacific Northwest,” including that it’ll create 1000’s of jobs and “make sure that Washington plays a leading role in growing the green hydrogen economy.”
Nearly each state had joined not less than one proposed hub, and plenty of have been working collectively, hoping to reap the financial improvement and 1000’s of jobs they might convey. Big fossil gas corporations, renewable power builders and researchers in college and authorities labs are concerned, too.
Environmental teams are skeptical, arguing that whereas hydrogen is a clean-burning supply of energy, it takes a substantial amount of power to supply. When it’s made with electrical energy from coal or pure fuel, it has a much bigger carbon footprint than merely burning the supply gas.
“Hydrogen is another bait-and-switch from an administration that continues to break its promises to aggressively tackle climate change and help communities achieve a just, equitable transition to renewable energy,” stated Silas Grant, a campaigner with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity.
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”