Earth Matters: Administration celebrates launch of hydrogen hubs, but critics are seriously unhappy

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Friday announced her department’s seven choices for Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs. The government is investing $7 billion to leverage a total of $50 billion in public-private partnerships. That is meant to deliver a hefty giddy-up to a nascent industry the administration says will ultimately employ tens of thousands of workers and be of major assistance in reaching net zero carbon emissions.

In a statement, the White House said, “Collectively, the hubs aim to produce more than three million metric tons of clean hydrogen per year, thereby achieving nearly one third of the 2030 U.S. clean hydrogen production goal. Together, the seven Hydrogen Hubs will eliminate 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from end uses each year—an amount roughly equivalent to combined annual emissions of over 5.5 million gasoline-powered cars. The nearly $50 billion investment is one of the largest investments in clean manufacturing and jobs in history.”

Another environmental victory, right? A trifecta, in fact: good jobs, a new, specialized clean industry, and less greenhouse gas. Not so fast, say critics, some gentle, some not.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm

For instance, Revolving Door Project Senior Researcher Hannan Story Brown said: “Any hope that the Department of Energy was going to send a clear, strong signal that hydrogen needs to be produced by renewable energy in order to be ‘clean’ was thoroughly extinguished on Friday. A majority of the selected projects intend to produce hydrogen from fossil fuels and rely on unproven carbon capture and storage technology to clean up the carbon dioxide generated as the main byproduct of the chemical process that yields hydrogen from natural gas. The Energy Department has already poured more than a billion federal dollars into failed carbon capture initiatives which made no discernible dent in the nation’s massive emissions. Why should we expect this latest contrivance to lead to real success where all of its predecessors have failed?”

Julie McNamara, deputy policy director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said "billions of taxpayer dollars are at risk of perpetuating fossil fuel industry injustices and harms while subsidizing fossil fuel greenwashing."

And though the Sierra Club supports the hydrogen hubs. executive director Ben Jealous warned after the announcement that "the fossil fuel industry is working to continue our nation's reliance on fossil fuels by any means necessary—and hydrogen offers yet another possible inroad for Big Oil and Gas to lock in polluting and noneconomic uses of gas for decades to come. Decision-makers in the administration and at the local level must be wary of these attempts and ensure as much hydrogen-specific funding as possible goes to green hydrogen and its most efficient end uses to ensure this investment actually addresses climate change.”