MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The United States Department of Energy hosted a virtual public listening session this week to hear comments from people who will be affected by the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, known as ARCH2.
The ARCH2 hub is planned for Morgantown and will extend into several West Virginia communities. The goal for the hub is to take advantage of the region’s supply of natural gas, which would be used to produce hydrogen. The hub will also span into parts of southeastern Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania.
The hub is one of seven selected for $7 billion in federal funding through a program established by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. ARCH2 has been selected for an award of up to $925 million.
Officials with the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) were a part of the listening session from Wednesday. One listening session is being offered for each of the seven hubs nationwide. The sessions were scheduled by the Department of Energy in response to some feedback they received from attendees of the H2Hub community briefings.
“At OCED, we place great importance in public engagement for our projects,” Angelique Besnard, Stakeholder Engagement Specialist with H2Hubs, said. “It is part of our mandate to ensure equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system.”
Also listening in on the session was Don Lamonoca, Director of Critical Infrastructure Business for Batelle, an Ohio-based applied science and technology company. Battelle is also teaming up with Pittsburgh gas producer EQT Corp., Illinois energy research firm GTI Energy and Bridgeport energy technology consulting firm Allegheny Science & Technology to create ARCH2.
Some environmental advocates and those located in the surrounding areas of the hub that will be affected who see more concerning questions than answers with the expansive, fossil-fuel-based
enterprise, suggesting the session will attract concerned citizens who have something to say.
Those registered to speak were able to for four minutes.
West Virginia Environmental Council vice president Quenton King brought up three concerns about ARCH2 when he spoke to officials with the project. King said there are conflicts of interest with the hub being in the state, the extension of the lifespan of fossil fuels causing climate change and a need for more community engagement.
“Our state is still experiencing the harmful legacy of fossil fuels and we cannot see that legacy extended with this hydrogen hub,” King said.
Ohio resident Kathryn Finneran expressed her concerns with the hydrogen hub too. She said she has lived in an oil and natural gas community for many years. She works in the Geography department of Ohio State University.
Finneran is concerned about various energy projects that harm the human body.
“I’m also concerned with how energy corporations and developers twist and manipulate language to disable our economic and political systems in order to encourage extractive development against the will of the people in the communities that would be mostly impacted by it,” she said.
Betsy Lawson leaves near Morgantown and close to a fracking pad. She said using frack gas is a misuse of tax dollars.
“Using frack gas to generate hydrogen means there will be an increased demand for natural gas and that’s a huge set back for the people who live here and for the climate,” said Lawson.
Jim Kotcon is chairman of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. His biggest concern was the indirect impacts created by the hub and its funding.
“We do not trust a public benefits plan that is negotiated in secret with the proponent without the active participation of the public before contracts are signed,” he said.
Lisa DePaoli lives in southwestern Pennsylvania and is the Communications Director for the Center for Coalfield Justice. Over time, she said the landscape in her region has been dismantled by fossil fuel interests. She believes the community deserves better than this type of project.
“It throws out more subsidies and tax credits to fossil fuel operators while bringing residents few actual benefits and a host of harms,” DePaoli said.