PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia will be one of seven regional hubs for the production of clean hydrogen, funded by the federal infrastructure law. President Joe Biden made the announcement himself at the Tioga Marine Terminal on Friday.
The infrastructure law provides $7 billion to accelerate the market for hydrogen fuel. The president said the hub would create 20,000 jobs and would be a major part of the solution to what he called the existential threat of climate change.
“I made it a goal for our country to get to net zero emissions no later than 2050. If we don’t do this, if we don’t stay below these numbers, the whole world's changing. Our kids are gonna be, and our grandkids are gonna be,” he trailed at that thought. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Ben LaBolt, White House communications director, said Philadelphia was chosen as a hub in part because of its strategic location.
“Philadelphia will be receiving about $750 million of that funding to build the mid-Atlantic hydrogen hub for Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey,” he said.
The city also has existing pipelines, once used for fossil fuel, that can now carry clean hydrogen.
“Hydrogen is a particularly important part of the energy mix to get to a net zero emissions target by 2050, alongside solar and wind. It’s important for the industrial sector,” LaBolt added. “Chemical plants, steel, cement production, some of the most carbon-intensive energy sources out there.”
Hydrogen fuel can be made from renewable sources or natural gas, and, when consumed, produces only water.
LaBolt noted several types of jobs will come out of this endeavor, both in the construction phase and in the actual hydrogen production.
Biden said wind and solar can't generate enough energy to restore American manufacturing, but hydrogen can. While the project fits his policies, its political benefits were also clear when Building Trades Council business manager Ryan Boyer introduced the president.
“Next year we will send him back to the white house to do this critical and most important work,” Boyer said. “There’s really no alternative. It’s Joe Biden or we go to hell in a handbasket.”
Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state in presidential politics. It also happens to be the only state to win two of the seven hydrogen hubs.