CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito says despite some market challenges, the ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub project will be a help to the state’s economy.
The ARCH2 Hub, which is planned for Morgantown and will extend into several other communities in the Mountain State, was part of an October 2023 announcement from the Biden Administration. West Virginia was one of seven locations selected for $7 billion in federal funding.
The hub in West Virginia was selected for an award of up to $925 million. The hub is supposed to span into parts of southeastern Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania.
“The hub and all of the coordinating and collaborative entities that have been developed into the ARCH2 umbrella of the hydrogen hub have been working hard to see that this will come to full fruition,” Capito said in her media call last week.
According to Capito, it’s been a bit difficult to get the project off the ground over the last couple of years because the market isn’t quite where they’d hoped it would be at this point.
“I think the problem that we’re seeing is that the market for hydrogen has not developed as quickly as we would want,” she said. “We can’t build a hub unless we have somebody to sell the hydrogen to.”
“That’s the part that really needs the big push before we’re going to be able to see some of the re-tooling of some of these manufacturing sites into hydrogen producing sites. That’s already occurring but it’s not occurring fast enough,” she continued.
Capito told reporters that the changing over in administration last year put a stall on some of the hydrogen hubs. She admitted that it was important for her to get extended time for tax advantages.
Overall, Capito says a little setback won’t change the overall outcome of the hydrogen hub.
“As we move forward and our energy demands go up even more than they already have, I expect that the development of our hydrogen hub will not just continue but will then branch out into the employment and opportunities and the promise that a full hydrogen hub can offer,” Capito said.