The Federal Hydrogen Hub Community Guide
Introduction
A brief summary of the Hydrogen Hub Program and its potential impacts
This resource is part of the Federal Hydrogen Hub Community Guide.
The stakes are high for communities facing proposed hydrogen projects, particularly communities already overburdened by pollution.
Billions in federal tax credits and subsidies are driving a surge in hydrogen projects, including through the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub Program.
Hydrogen is a source of energy that, unlike fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and methane (often called “natural gas”), does not create carbon emissions when it is burned.
It does not exist in isolation in the natural world, however, and producing hydrogen fuel is an extremely energy-intensive process that uses more energy than it produces.
Whether hydrogen is good for the climate and communities depends heavily on how it is produced, transported, and used.
Proposals to Develop Hydrogen Hubs Across the U.S.
The Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program is an $8 billion federal government program created by the 2024 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and overseen by DOE. Each Hydrogen Hub within the program will be a network of hydrogen producers, hydrogen users, and infrastructure to move hydrogen from where it’s produced to where it’s used (e.g., pipelines).
The stated goal of the Hydrogen Hubs is to create a national clean hydrogen network that will help decarbonize our economy. Whether this goal is achieved will depend entirely on how the Hubs produce, use, and transport hydrogen.
In October 2023, DOE invited seven out of the dozens of Hub applicants to negotiate for funding. As of mid-August 2024, three of those applicants have concluded negotiations and received initial funding. Funding will be allocated in phases across 8–12 years and current commitments are only for Phase 1.
DOE says that Hubs will only receive funding at each phase if they minimize negative impacts and provide benefits for environmental justice communities.
Your community could encounter Hydrogen Hub projects of one or more of these types:
Hydrogen Hub Impacts on Communities
The Hydrogen Hubs could provide benefits, harms, or a combination of the two, depending on how they produce, use, and transport hydrogen.
Some Hydrogen Hub projects powered by clean energy could benefit communities by reducing local air pollution.
For example:
Community Benefit
Green hydrogen‡, could replace dirty hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, which would reduce both climate and health-harming pollution in communities living near where the dirty hydrogen was produced.
Community Benefit
Using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels in steelmaking and other hard-to-decarbonize industrial facilities would benefit communities by reducing both climate and health-harming pollution.
Community Benefit
Hub projects could also create new jobs and new sources of revenue for communities.
Hydrogen Hub projects could harm communities by increasing local pollution.
Examples of harmful hydrogen projects include:
Harmful Hydrogen Project
Industrial plants that produce hydrogen from methane‡, which can increase fossil fuel pollution and cause other environmental harms.
Harmful Hydrogen Project
Projects that produce hydrogen using existing zero-carbon energy that is already used by the electric grid. This could include renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, or nuclear energy. Removing this energy from the grid causes coal and gas plants to operate more frequently to provide the grid with the energy it lost.
Harmful Hydrogen Project
Power plants that burn hydrogen to produce electricity, which creates nitrogen oxide (NOx)‡ pollution that contributes to smog and causes asthma.
Harmful Hydrogen Project
Pipelines that transport hydrogen could require new pipeline construction. Pipelines could leak, threatening safety due to hydrogen’s flammability and explosiveness.
Harmful Hydrogen Project
Hydrogen projects that include carbon capture‡ technology and CO2 storage‡, which create environmental and health hazards, such as water contamination and possible asphyxiation from leaks.
The hydrogen production process is energy-intensive and inefficient; it uses more energy than it produces.
Using hydrogen to power anything that can run on renewable energy, such as homes and vehicles, wastes critical renewable energy because of this inefficiency.
Hydrogen should only be used for projects that lack better climate solutions.
Hydrogen’s climate impacts
Hydrogen, if truly clean‡, can reduce climate pollution by decarbonizing industrial sectors that are hard to electrify, like steel manufacturing, and sectors that currently rely on dirty hydrogen, like fertilizer manufacturing.
But dirty hydrogen projects that use fossil fuels or cause coal and gas plants to provide more power to our electric grid would worsen our climate crisis by massively increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Because of their potential negative impacts, hydrogen projects also raise environmental justice concerns. For example, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council has recommended that the federal government halt projects that burn hydrogen mixed with fossil fuels, or produce hydrogen from fossil fuels and then capture and store CO2 emissions, due to concerns about safety, public health, environmental risks, cumulative impacts, and efficiency.
Ways to Advocate around Hydrogen Hub Projects
Communities have several avenues for advocating to shape Hydrogen Hub projects:
‡Green hydrogen is made using 100% renewable electricity — like solar and wind — to split hydrogen from water molecules through a process called electrolysis. See full definition.
‡Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. See full definition.
‡NOx also indirectly contributes to the greenhouse effect, worsening atmospheric warming and climate disruption. See full definition.
‡Carbon capture refers to a set of industrial technologies designed to reduce CO2 emissions at the source (i.e., smokestack) of a facility and prevent on-site CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere. See full definition.
‡CO2 storage, also known as sequestration, can refer to different things. When discussed in this guide, CO2 storage refers to storage in saline aquifers, which are deep underground and filled with salty water (brine).
‡Truly clean hydrogen is hydrogen that is produced from water through electrolysis, where the electrolysis process is powered by sources of clean energy that are “new, now, and near.” See full definition.
Updated on October 11, 2024
Maps and graphics by Casey Chin / Earthjustice. Basemap data sources: Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, EPA.
This guide is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information contained herein is not a substitute for professional legal counsel. Please consult with an attorney to discuss your specific legal needs.
Questions? For questions or feedback on this Guide, please contact us at webmaster@earthjustice.org
Earthjustice’s Clean Energy Program uses the power of the law and the strength of partnership to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy.