Hydrogen & Carbon Capture
Blue hydrogen and carbon capture are false climate solutions & economic boondoggles.
Expensive, unproven hydrogen and carbon capture technologies harm communities, cost billions, and do little to reduce climate-warming emissions, research shows.
Photo: John E. Amos coal-fired power plant in Winfield, WV. Wikimedia Commons, 2018.
“Oil and gas executives want our region to invest in costly, unproven blue hydrogen and carbon capture technologies to bail out their industries, which increasingly can’t compete with clean, low-cost alternatives.”
Reports:
More resources:
Carbon dioxide pipelines: a dangerous part of Appalachia’s proposed carbon capture boondoggle
On a February evening in 2020, a carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline ruptured near Satartia, Mississippi, causing a plume of CO2 to engulf the community. Within minutes, dozens of residents collapsed in their homes and vehicles. Cars stalled, including emergency vehicles...
What is a hydrogen hub?
In July 2024, the US Department of Energy officially awarded $30 million to the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, or ARCH2, the first tranche of a total $925 million allocated for its development. The funding announcement marked the first concrete step toward...
Hydrogen 101
Recently, a new form of energy has generated lots of buzz in the Ohio River Valley and across the country: hydrogen. The federal government is pouring billions of dollars into new hydrogen “hubs” that would bring large-scale production to our region and several others...
Tipping Point
Key Takeaways: Carbon capture & sequestration (CCS) is a still unproven and spectacularly expensive decarbonization technology that may have value in industrial sectors that have no other viable decarbonization options. The power generating sector is a very...
The greatest hydrogen risk facing Pennsylvania policymakers
Lately we hear a great deal about hydrogen’s environmental and economic promise. But hydrogen deployment also carries risks, not just for health and safety, but economic risks, including higher prices, taxes, and utility bills along with little potential for job...
The Tri-State CCS Hub and The Return of The Bad Deal
Do you know a bad deal when you see it? Possibly not, if the deal has to do with something as arcane as leasing underground pore space to an oil and gas company that wants to dispose of carbon dioxide. But that’s the kind of deal property owners and elected officials...
The Rhodium Group’s Economic Impact Report on Carbon Capture and Storage
Attorneys who specialize in contracts know that a single phrase or just a word can completely alter the meaning and effect of a contract. The same is true . . . maybe even more true . . . of economic impact reports, which by their nature are speculative and...
2023 in Review
Together, a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia is possible. That’s the vision that has geared our data-driven research, guided our outreach and campaigns, and grounded our work in the region’s community and culture ever since the Ohio River Valley...
For Decarbonization, Carrots May Be Popular, But They’re Far More Expensive Than Sticks
The Inflation Reduction Act relies far more heavily on carrots than it does on sticks to induce industries to mitigate their carbon emissions. Tax credits for technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration actually exceed the costs companies would incur to...