The Biden administration has selected 7 clean-energy projects from Pennsylvania to California for a $7 billion dollar program to kickstart development and production of hydrogen fuel – a key component of Biden’s plan to slow climate change.
The money will help establish 7 regional hydrogen hubs to help replace fossil fuels such as coal and oil with cleaner-burning hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity.
There were 23 finalists for the hydrogen fuel program with the 7 projects selected based in California, Washington, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois and Minnesota,
. All but the California and Texas hubs include projects in multiple states. Pennsylvania has projects in two separate hubs.
The Minnesota-based Heartland Hub includes projects in North and South Dakota. It’s getting $925 million to decarbonize fertilizer used in agriculture and advance use of clean hydrogen in electric generation and for cold climate space heating.
The Heartland Hub also plans to offer equity ownership to tribal communities and local farmers.
The White House calls hydrogen essential to achieving Biden’s “vision of a strong, clean energy economy” and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 2050.
Environmental groups are skeptical, though – arguing that while hydrogen is a clean-burning source of power, it takes a great deal of energy to produce.
In fact, when hydrogen is made with electricity from coal or natural gas, it has a bigger carbon footprint than simply burning the source fuel.
President Biden made the official announcement on the selection of the 7 regional hubs on Friday during an economic-themed visit to Philadelphia.