North Carolina's Republican U.S. Senators have joined a bipartisan group that supports building a hub for hydrogen energy in the southeast.
Hydrogen has the potential to be a limitless source of clean energy. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $8 billion to create 10 hydrogen hubs around the country.
“The production, processing, delivery, storage and end-use of clean hydrogen, including innovative uses in the industrial sector, are crucial to DOE’s strategy for achieving President Biden’s goal of a 100% clean electrical grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” the U.S. Department of Energy says.
Southeastern utilities — including Duke Energy, Southern Company, and Dominion Energy — have formed a coalition to attract one of the hubs to the southeast.
North Carolina's Republican U.S. senators — Thom Tillis and Ted Budd — support that effort. They joined their Democratic colleagues from Georgia, and GOP senators from South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee in writing a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
The senators say the hub “presents a unique opportunity to grow the Southeast’s economy, strengthen U.S. energy independence, lower costs for households and businesses, and continue to develop the region as a clean energy leader.”
The Department of Energy will soon select sites for the hubs.
"We now are going over those more detailed applications,” Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told a Senate committee in February. “April 7 is when those are due... We're going to get the funding out by the end of this year."
