A summer with record high temperatures — attributed by most experts to anthropogenic climate change — once again drove home the need for this planet to break its fossil fuel habit.
While we need to make that transition as quickly as possible, we also need to be mindful — especially here in the Marcellus Shale natural gas belt — of the need to do it in a way that won’t impoverish those who live in regions dependent upon fossil fuel economies.
That’s why it was encouraging to hear the Biden administration’s announcement Friday of a $7 billion investment into developing hydrogen fuel production from funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
It was even more encouraging that the proposal calls for developing seven “hydrogen hubs” with projects in 16 states.
Two of those — the Mid Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub and the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub — will include Pennsylvania. Placement of the seven regional hubs appears to have been determined with an eye toward transitioning economies from dirty energy to clean energy.
The Appalachian Regional hub, based in West Virginia and covering Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, amounts to an attempt to cushion the economic blow of transitioning from coal and natural gas.
Texas — center of the U.S. petroleum industry — is the location of another hub. The remaining four hubs will be in California, Washington, Minnesota and Illinois.
The White House, as quoted by Associated Press, expects the program to yield an additional $40 billion in private investment.
Hydrogen fuel has great potential to power vehicles and generate clean energy. While fossil fuels emit smoke and carbon pollution blamed for climate change, the byproducts of hydrogen fuel are heat and water.
Hydrogen is the universe’s most plentiful element, which means it could be an abundant fuel source.
Although the announcement is cause for optimism, there are concerns about hydrogen fuels — just as there are with solar and wind energy — from the upstream expenditure of energy generated by fossil fuels.
The Associated Press reported that the production of hydrogen fuel requires energy. If that energy comes from fossil fuels, the carbon emissions can exceed the pollution created by just using natural gas.
Solving those problems will require research and time — and investments like the one announced Friday.
Editor’s note: A prior version of this story included a quote from environmental group PennFuture in support. The Sharon Herald removed that quote.
