Published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 10.12.23 (Bloomberg contributed to this report) 

President Joe Biden’s administration will travel to Pennsylvania Friday to announce federal funding for two hydrogen hub projects in the state — including one based in West Virginia that would include development in Western Pennsylvania — as part of $7 billion in federal grants from the Department of Energy, according to a report by Reuters.

The projects could produce 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen fuel by 2050, a major component of Mr. Biden’s plan to decarbonize the U.S. economy, the news agency reported.

Part of the funding is expected to go to a coalition of Appalachian natural gas producers, industrial companies and research institutions — called the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or Arch2 — which formed last year to pursue federal hydrogen hub funding, the Post-Gazette reported.

The Arch2 effort would use natural gas as a feedstock in hydrogen production and would rely on carbon capture and sequestration to make hydrogen that qualifies as clean.

Downtown-based EQT Corp. is among the leading companies in this effort. Other companies involved in the Arch2 coalition include CNX Corp., Nucor Steel, Peoples Natural Gas, the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District, Babcock and Wilcox, Air Liquide, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and Battelle.

The Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub, in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, also will receive a grant, Reuters reported, citing “sources familiar with the forthcoming announcement” by Mr. Biden.

The U.S. Department of Energy opened the application period for $7 billion of federal funding last September, with concept papers due Nov. 7, 2022 and final applications by April 7, 2023.

The funding for hydrogen hubs, where the gas can both be produced and used, is intended to highlight the climate friendly fuel’s potential to provide carbon-free power to run factories and power plants. Almost no hydrogen is currently produced in the US.

The Biden administration has said the gas is needed to achieve its climate goals and has launched an effort to reduce costs — one of the biggest barriers of its widespread use — by 80% to $1 a kilogram by 2030.

But not everyone is a fan. Opponents argue that while hydrogen is a clean-burning source of power, it takes a great deal of energy to produce – and when it’s made with electricity from coal or natural gas, it has a bigger carbon footprint.

“We don’t want to see billions of our tax dollars spent increasing emissions and environmental harm,” said Lukas Ross, a senior program manager with the environmental group Friends of the Earth. “The Department of Energy has considerable power over how this money is implemented. It’s in their hands whether the hydrogen hub program becomes a lifeline for big oil.”