What’s all the clean hydrogen hubbub?

Last week, I joined President Biden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as he announced something extraordinary for Delaware and our planet. Our region was selected to become one of seven clean hydrogen hubs across our nation. The Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub, or MACH2, will help Delaware cement our status as a clean energy leader, advance our nation’s climate goals, and create thousands of good-paying jobs.

You may ask yourself, what is a clean hydrogen hub? Simply put, it’s a network of public and private projects to produce, distribute, and use clean hydrogen. The production happens using renewable energy sources like wind and solar, as well as other clean energy sources like nuclear. During storage and transport, clean hydrogen can give new, repurposed life to existing oil and gas infrastructure. Then, we can use it to power our vehicles and airplanes, as well as energy-intensive industries like the production of steel and aluminum.

Historically, clean hydrogen has been quite expensive to produce at scale. That’s why I worked to secure tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act to lower the cost of clean hydrogen. These new tax credits, along with the hydrogen hubs program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which I helped author and pass in the Senate, are making clean hydrogen projects like MACH2 possible here in Delaware and across our country.

Taken together, this hub will help us strengthen our energy security while significantly reducing emissions that are harmful to our health and planet. MACH2 is also an incredible opportunity to transform major sources of pollution into a part of the solution for our clean energy economy. As a part of the hub, oil refineries like Delaware City Refinery are going to be revitalized as key partners and producers of clean hydrogen energy.

I’m also excited to share that MACH2 is expected to create some 20,000 good-paying jobs in our region. In addition, MACH2 is the only hub to be largely led by organized labor. This collaboration will ensure the creation of a new talent pipeline in the clean energy sector — providing career pathways and effective re-skilling opportunities for workers in our area.

For these reasons, I’m all in on clean hydrogen! With MACH2 we are not only looking after our planet but also providing economic opportunity and health improvements that directly benefit surrounding communities. That’s what I call a win-win-win.

Sincerely,

Tom Carper