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Chemical Reaction: West Virginia submits hydrogen hub plan, opponents call it a ‘boondoggle’

CHARLESTON — West Virginia recently submitted a proposal to snag one of four possible regional hydrogen hubs, something state and federal officials call a game changer. But for environmental advocates, they see a hydrogen hub as just another pipe dream.

In a joint press release March 21, Gov. Jim Justice, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, and 1st District Rep. David McKinley announced that a proposal for a regional hydrogen hub was submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Manchin, the state’s lone Democrat, and Republicans Justice, Capito and McKinley formed the West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Working Group in February. Manchin, Capito, and McKinley were supporters of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which they helped pass and includes funding for the hydrogen hub project, while Justice was a supporter of the bill.

“With our abundant energy sources and strong partnerships, our state is uniquely situated to compete to develop a hydrogen hub,” Manchin said. “I am incredibly proud of the efforts of our bipartisan group to put forward a great proposal that showcases how West Virginia can continue to lead the country — and the world — in advancing energy technologies and bring good-paying jobs to the state.”

“Along with a prepared workforce, economic infrastructure, and geographic advantages, our state has a history of being an energy powerhouse with a proven ability to adapt and export both fossil fuels and renewable resources, including hydropower, wind, and solar,” Capito said. “This is yet another opportunity for our state created through our Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and I’m proud of the proposal we, as members of the Hydrogen Hub Coalition, put forth on behalf of workers and families across West Virginia.”

“West Virginia is the place where this all-important hydrogen hub belongs,” Justice said. “I truly believe that, after reading our official response, the decision makers at the DOE will agree that West Virginia is the dream landing spot for this hydrogen hub to flourish at heights not possible anywhere else.”

The federal project is funded with $9.5 billion from the hard infrastructure bill, including $8 billion for the Regional Hydrogen Hub program. Each hub is required to demonstrate the production of clean hydrogen and demonstrate the use of clean hydrogen. Lawmakers were able to insert specific language that requires at least one hub to be placed in the Appalachian region.

According to the Department of Energy, hydrogen is a clean fuel that can be used to decarbonize manufacturing processes, such as steel and metals production, and heavy transportation. Hydrogen can also be used as a long-term fuel cell to store energy for future use.

“Hydrogen is an alternative to some of the fuels that are out there. It’s innovative,” said McKinley in an interview Wednesday after his keynote address to attendees of the annual Construction and Design Exposition in Charleston.

“We don’t have any (carbon dioxide) emissions. There are no mercury emissions. There are no other contaminants in (hydrogen),” McKinley said. “The only emission you get from a hydrogen fuel cell is water. So what better way long-term to get on the ground floor and build up so that we can get to that point. That’s our intention.”

West Virginia’s proposal would most likely either be a gray hydrogen process, when hydrogen is extracted from natural gas with emissions released into the atmosphere; or blue hydrogen process which also uses natural gas, but the greenhouse gases are captured and pumped underground through carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS.)

Currently, the process of extracting hydrogen is expensive. The hydrogen hub program is meant to research ways to efficiently extract hydrogen in a way that is not cost-prohibitive and allows for the continued use of natural gas for electric power generation. McKinley said the working group wants to create a consortium with West Virginia University, Marshall University and perhaps neighboring states to help with research.

“Let’s get the best and brightest that we have,” McKinley said. “Let’s get our universities engaged in this. So, we’re putting together this consortium and it may ultimately be multiple states, but the facility will be in West Virginia. That’s the commitment.”

Not everyone is cheering on this moonshot effort, however. A group of environmental advocates for clean energy transition came together Thursday to discuss a recently released report by the Ohio River Valley Institute. The report, “The Ohio River Valley Hydrogen Hub: A Boondoggle in the Making,” makes the case that a hydrogen hub is one in a line of pipedreams dangled in front of the state.

According to the report, retrofitting coal and natural gas-fired power plants to produce hydrogen, capture greenhouse gas emissions and pump those emissions through pipelines and underground would be more costly than transitioning to clean energy sources, such as solar and wind.

“The concern is that when you look at the various functions for which hydrogen is not particularly economic in the first place, and you look at the fact that hydrogen, or at least carbon capture rather, is not particularly economic in the power generating sector, the actual amount of carbon that would be left to be captured from … industries in which hydrogen is applicable and in which carbon capture is affordable, would be so small that they would not possibly justify the cost, the immense cost of building a thousand miles of pipeline network throughout the region in order to provide the infrastructure that would be necessary for blue hydrogen,” said Sean O’Leary, a senior research at the Ohio River Valley Institute, during a virtual panel discussion about the hydrogen hub Thursday morning.

In his report, O’Leary argued blue hydrogen doesn’t solve the emissions problems caused by extracting natural gas, such as methane emissions which are worse for the climate than carbon dioxide emissions. He also said that electric companies would be reluctant to implement CCUS systems on their own, and federal mandates would cause those same companies to increase costs on consumers. Lastly, O’Leary doesn’t see hydrogen use for cars, light trucks or for home heating increasing substantially beyond current uses.

“When we talk about the potential value of blue hydrogen, it is much smaller in application than most folks expect,” O’Leary said.

Ultimately, clean energy advocates don’t see a hydrogen hub being an economic engine or a long-term major employer. They compared the hub to past efforts to recruit multiple natural gas crackers or an underground natural gas storage hub, and promises of new jobs from growth of natural gas drilling, pipeline construction or a new downstream petrochemical manufacturing renaissance.

McKinley said he has no issues with the expansion of solar and wind for energy production, but he doesn’t see those clean energy technologies replacing fossil fuel, either coal or natural gas, as an energy source. He understands the hurdles that remain for CCUS, but McKinley believes the technology is close to being feasible.

“As a businessman, I say we stay on course with carbon capture,” McKinley said. “We are getting so close to being able to do that. It might be another 10 to 15 years, but we’re going to get to zero emissions from our coal-fired power plants. We’re going to get there.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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