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:
The Ammonia Industry Expansion Begins To Falter
Less than three months after its July passage, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) is already reducing the planned expansion of ammonia and hydrogen production. ORVI’s March 2025 report on the ammonia industry found that if all the proposed facilities as of October 2024...
A Big Beautiful Blow to the Ammonia Industry
Tucked deep in the mammoth One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that President Trump signed into law on July 4th is a provision that threatens the planned expansion of the ammonia industry. To see how, let’s review the pre-OBBB ammonia landscape. ORVI’s March 2025 report on...
Statement on H.R.1’s Hydrogen Tax Credit Provision
Earlier today, Congress finalized a budget that includes a provision restricting access to the 45V hydrogen production tax credit solely to companies that initiate construction activities prior to the end of 2027. In response, Ohio River Valley Institute Hydrogen...
Adams Fork Energy’s Blue Ammonia Project, Explained
As discussed in our companion article, New York-based TransGas Development Systems, LLC announced plans in 2023 to build the Adams Fork Energy ammonia project in Mingo County, WV. This project was originally part of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2)...
Governor Shapiro’s “Lightning Plan”: What HB500 Means for Hydrogen
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s proposal for a hydrogen tax credit addresses some of the worst aspects of the existing tax credit but the tax credit still rewards polluters and leaves itself vulnerable to changes that could render it moot, unenforceable, or...
The Tenaska Tri-State CCS Hub: Reading Between the Lines
Last month, a representative for Tenaska — the company seeking to build the Tri-State Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Hub — testified before the Ohio House Natural Resource Committee in support of House Bill 170. If passed and signed into law, this bill would...
Ohio House Bill 170 and Senate Bill 136: What You Should Know
Legislators in Ohio seek to establish a regulatory framework for the long-term, geologic storage of carbon dioxide in order to provide the clarity needed to attract developers to the state. But, HB170 and SB136 go far beyond this simple goal. If passed, these two CO2...
ARCH2: It’s Time for Our Leaders to Start Asking Tough Questions
The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) was always a questionable prospect. Since 2021, the Ohio River Valley Institute has asserted that carbon capture and blue hydrogen, the technologies underpinning what later became the hub, are prohibitively expensive and only...
A Month from Hell
Key Points Northern Appalachia has, for a decade and a half, premised its economic development strategies on a strategic triad of natural gas, petrochemicals, and most recently hydrogen. Natural gas expansion has proven itself incapable of delivering on promises of...