President Joe Biden announced on Friday new “hydrogen centers” throughout USA as part of efforts to boost the economy with green energy ahead of the 2024 elections.
“I’m here to announce one of the largest investments in advanced manufacturing in the history of this country: $7 billion in federal investments that will attract $40 billion in private investments in clean hydrogen energy,” he said. Biden.
The 80-year-old Democrat traveled to Philadelphia to reveal the regions that won a bidding war for billions of dollars in financing to make the clean fuelincluding several in highly contested electoral states.
The centers aim to produce about three million metric tons of clean hydrogen annually, equivalent to one-third of the U.S. production target for 2030, and reduce emissions.
”Taken together, the reduction in emissions from these hydrogen centers will be equivalent to taking 5.5 million gas vehicles off the road,” he declared. Biden.
Bidenwho is neck and neck with his likely rival in the coming year, Donald Trump, has made the green energy a key part of his “Bidenomics” plan to revive American industry and create jobs.
The hydrogen energy It is also a key component in his goal to combat the climate crisis and bring the United States to a level of “net zero emissions” of pollutants in 2050 at the latest, he noted.
The significant financial boost will go to a hydrogen production on a large scale, the pipelines that transport it and help industries and companies adapt to its use.
The centers will be in California, Texas, the east coast of USAthe Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Appalachian mountain region in the northeast, the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Two of the states involved – Pennsylvania in the eastern region and Michigan in the Midwest – were crucial states in the 2020 elections when Biden defeated trumpand it is likely that they will be the same next year.
– Worry –
Some nonprofits expressed concern that the initiative could perpetuate harms caused by fossil fuels.
He Union of Concerned Scientists warned in a statement that the announcement of the centers “promotes multiple projects based on the production of hydrogen and risky end uses of the hydrogen.” hydrogen”.
The authorities of USA They must implement rigorous criteria “to ensure the development of a hydrogen industry that is unequivocally aligned with our climate goals,” said Julie McNamara, deputy director of the group’s climate and energy program.
The hydrogen centers They are funded by a bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which includes $65 billion in clean energy investments at the Department of Energy.
Biden called for increasing production capacity for low- and zero-carbon emission sources, known as “blue” and “green” hydrogen.
He blue hydrogen It is produced from natural gas in which carbon dioxide from the manufacturing process is captured. Green hydrogen is produced through renewable sources.
(With information from AFP)
Source: Gestion
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