Weak political support for ‘hydrogen hub’ makes western Pennsylvania fall behind
Salena Zito
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PITTSBURGH — For the first time in 20 years, western Pennsylvania is not at the forefront of energy in this country. The region failed to receive a much-coveted share of the $8 billion in federal funds for the building of a “hydrogen hub” in the region.
Local labor leaders, Democrats, the high-tech sector, economic development groups, and business leaders all expressed disappointment in the proposal’s denial, which meant being “left with crumbs,” as one Democrat put it.
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All of them pointed to a lack of “juice” in the game in Washington. Gone are the days of Mayor Bill Peduto, congressman Mike Doyle, and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald working as a Democratic force to bring big energy projects to the region like the Shell Cracker Plant, which former governor Tom Wolf called “a game changer” for the economy in the region in 2015.
President Joe Biden will instead on Friday afternoon present a long-awaited winner’s list of “hydrogen hub” projects in Philadelphia, where one of the grant recipients is expected to be located.
Locals partly blame having a climate-change activist, Ed Gainey, as mayor of Pittsburgh. Also, the city’s left-wing congresswoman, Rep. Summer Lee, and the Democrats’ candidate for Allegheny County executive, Sara Innamorato, who came out against the hydrogen hub in May of this year, hurt the cause.
“Innamorato was against it. That’s terrible for the region. The other two, it is a sin of omission,” said one Democrat elected official frustrated at the opportunity lost for the region.
Western Pennsylvania’s labor leader Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council, said in a statement Thursday evening that he along with other union and trade leaders were aware the administration had chosen not to include western Pennsylvania as a designated federal hydrogen hub.
“We are continuing to examine the enormity of what this would mean for our workers and the future of our region, as well as evaluating the plan. We will have much, much more to say after the President speaks Friday,” he said.
The hydrogen hub program is part of the Biden administration’s effort to push the transition away from fossil fuels to hydrogen for use in power generation and manufacturing. Pittsburgh’s proposal was dubbed the “Decarbonization Network of Appalachia” with the purpose of developing the use of “blue hydrogen,” which is created by burning natural gas for use in both plastics and power generation.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) noted Friday on social media that he was “the only state to secure projects for two regional hydrogen hubs. The future of clean energy will run through Pennsylvania.”
The Pennsylvania hub will located in Philly and spread out in parcels of New Jersey and Delaware. Western Pennsylvania will not be the home of a hub but is expected to get some residual projects from the new hydrogen hub that West Virginia was awarded.
Local university programs, labor unions, and most Democrats lamented Pittsburgh’s step back from the forefront of energy development, which comes at the cost of jobs, opportunity, and development.
“Devastated,” said one union leader and Democrat of the news, adding, in reference to Gaine, Lee, and Innamorato, that “elections have consequences, and these three elections have had consequences.”
“Hydrogen is the future of decarbonization because you have to burn high-temperature fuels to melt steel, to melt aluminum, to make cement, to make glass, et cetera, et cetera. You can’t do that with solar panels and wind stacks,” the longtime Democrat said.
“You can make electricity there, but you can’t get up to a couple thousand degrees without burning something, coal, oil, gas, now hydrogen. In fact, most environmentalists like hydrogen, except if you’re a 100% purist and don’t think fracking should be used in anything. Even if it improves the environment, it’s never good enough for those in my party’s far Left who oppose it,” he said.
The job opportunity loss won’t just be blue-collar skilled labor. Opportunities for geologists, civil and chemical engineers, IT professionals, and chemists, many of whom would be drawn to the area for relocation, will no longer happen.
It also affects the budgets for school districts and the overall local economic drivers in Beaver and Lawrence Counties. All of this is in the once mighty Steel Valley, where it was projected to be located, meaning local hotels, diners, barber shops, and hardware stores won’t see the revenue they anticipated.
Since the boom of the natural gas industry in the early 2000s, Western Pennsylvania has been at the center of technology and extraction and economic growth in the state and the country, a growth that hasn’t always squared with the new Democrats running or trying to run the region.
As Innamorato told KDKA radio morning hosts Marty Griffin and Larry Richert this past May, she would shut down the brand new Shell crack plant in if she had the power.