President Joe Biden will announce seven new “hydrogen hubs” across the United States on Friday as part of efforts to boost the economy with green energy ahead of the 2024 election.
The 80-year-old Democrat will travel to Philadelphia to unveil the regions that won a bidding war for $7 billion in funding to make the clean fuel, including a number in electoral battleground states.
The aim of the hubs is to produce nearly three million metric tons of clean hydrogen a year, amounting to one third of the US production goal for 2030, and reduce emissions, the White House said.
Biden, who is neck and neck with his likely rival next year, Republican Donald Trump, has made green energy a key part of his “Bidenomics” plan to revive US industry and create jobs.
The White House said the plan would “create tens of thousands of high-quality jobs, strengthen the nation’s energy security and combat the climate crisis.”
The huge funding boost will fund large-scale hydrogen production, the pipelines to transport it, and help industries and businesses adapt to using the fuel.
The hubs are to be in California; Texas; the US east coast; the Midwest; the Pacific Northwest; the Appalachian mountain region in the northeast; the northern states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.
Two of the states involved — Pennsylvania in the eastern region and Michigan in the Midwest — were crucial swing states in the 2020 election when Biden beat Trump, and are likely to be again next year.
The hydrogen hub is part of the president’s $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which contains huge subsidies for clean energy tech and has left Europe worried that US firms will outcompete European rivals.
Hydrogen is a source of renewable and storable energy.
Biden has pledged to increase production capacity for low- and zero-carbon emission sources, which are known as “blue” and “green” hydrogen.
Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas in which the carbon dioxide from the manufacturing process is captured. Green hydrogen is produced through renewable sources.
AFP