Pennsylvania to secure Clean Hydrogen Hub with broad bipartisan industry and stakeholder support

Governor Tom Wolf has announced that Pennsylvania is working with energy, organized labor, and environmental stakeholders to support a path forward for industrial sector decarbonization with an emphasis on the deployment of clean hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies and to ensure that US Department of Energy invests in Pennsylvania for a Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub funded under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

The administration and stakeholders committed to work collaboratively to make Pennsylvania a leader in the development of clean hydrogen and competitive for energy related federal funding authorized under the BIL.

“As governor of Pennsylvania, I have long prioritized energy policy that moves us towards a cleaner energy future, while also creating good paying energy sector jobs,” said Gov. Wolf. “As a national leader in energy and manufacturing with a strong workforce, Pennsylvania is primed for this opportunity to lead the transition to a new energy ecosystem in which fuels like hydrogen play a central role in both our economic success as well as achieving our decarbonization goals.”

In addition, the governor and 24 industry, organized labor, and non-profit stakeholders signed onto a declaration signaling their commitment to take the steps necessary to create a regional ecosystem to achieve decarbonization, to transition to clean hydrogen, and to ensure the commonwealth is competitive in attracting investment and creating jobs in all parts of its economy.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $8 billion for at least four Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs to expand the use of clean hydrogen in the industrial sector. The BIL requires that at least two of the hubs be located in regions of the United States with the greatest natural gas resources, like Pennsylvania. In addition, Pennsylvania is well positioned in terms of many other Department of Energy priorities, including feedstock diversity, geographic diversity, training and employment, a high concentration of large industrial facilities with emissions, and an expansive multimodal infrastructure system. The Department of Energy anticipates that applications for funding will open later this summer.

Governor Wolf proposed initial funding in his 2022-23 budget proposal to support a strategic plan for industrial sector decarbonization through carbon capture, utilization and storage and advanced clean hydrogen technologies.