PA is moving forward to provide a regional hydrogen hub The state

The White House Council on Environmental Quality estimates the construction of the centers will cost between $ 170 billion and $ 230 billion.

Sean O’Leary, a senior fellow at the Ohio Valley Institute, named the cost of such a project outweighs the benefits.

“The development of a hydrogen hub and the use of carbon capture equipment in factories, in power plants, will not really do anything to increase their production or the value they bring to the economy,” O’Leary said. “It would just increase their spending on it.”

He added that this is the price we see in our taxes and electricity bills. The Law on Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs included $ 8 billion to build four hydrogen hubs nationwide. Critics of carbon capture technology have argued that it has not been tested on a large scale, expensive and does not reduce carbon in the atmosphere.

Joan Kilgour, executive director of the Ohio River Valley Institute, said the governor and some state lawmakers are offering a number of grants and regulations related to the center. She added that as the project progresses, government officials should be transparent with the public.

“It’s mostly about spending public money on decarbonisation solutions that should help improve the health of the population and solve the climate crisis,” Kilgour said. “And yet the public basically had no opportunity to intervene.”

Wolfe stressed that the creation of the center will contribute to the creation of clean jobs in Pennsylvania, supporting the commitment of the Biden administration to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.