One of the Biden administration’s flagship projects to derive energy from hydrogen faces an uncertain future due to strong community opposition, underscoring the difficulty in rolling out a technology once hailed as key to the green transition. The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub , spanning the prolific Marcellus shale basin in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, is designed to produce hydrogen using primarily gas and carbon capture by mid-2030.
until more clarity was provided on the project. “This is just the latest reinvention of the industry in an attempt to stay relevant and reposition themselves as a solution to a problem that they created, the climate crisis,” said Tom Torres, hydrogen campaign co-ordinator for the Ohio River Valley Institute, and one of the letter’s signatories. Clean hydrogen has been touted for its potential to green hard-to-abate sectors such as shipping and cement production.
, which use gas and carbon capture, also known as blue hydrogen. But the rollout of blue hydrogen is controversial because it generates emissions and relies on carbon capture technology, which has yet to be proven cost-efficient at scale. A study by researchers at Stanford and Cornell found that the emissions footprint of blue hydrogen was 20 per cent greater than burning gas or coal for heat.
and former deputy assistant secretary for oil and gas under the Trump administration, has defended the hub’s environmental credentials and commercial viability. He said the hub would not “cause new wells to be spudded” and attributed local pushback to a “misunderstanding” about the project’s stage of development.
was in negotiations with the DOE and had not finalised sites for its hydrogen facilities to begin serious community engagement, said Bennett. “In lieu of funding it’s very difficult . . . to start making promises and commitments to communities,” said Bennett, who testified at a Pennsylvania house hearing on June 17 on hydrogen hubs, where environmental groups and lawmakers raised concerns over blue hydrogen’s carbon footprint.