Is hydrogen energy worth the tradeoffs for Pittsburgh? We’ll find out soon
For decades, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have remained at the center of climate change messaging as the worst of the worst. In the psyche of your average media consumer, it's the pollutant that has shown up the most.
But tides are shifting — CO2 is potent and troublesome for people and the environment, but it's not the only gas that should be heating up climate conversations.
Last December, the Biden-Harris administration announced new methane regulations on "super polluters," enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, that target some of the country's biggest methane emitters. That includes prominent Pennsylvania polluters in the oil and gas industry.
Katie Jones, the Ohio River Valley Coordinator with FracTracker Alliance — a nonprofit working in Pennsylvania that leverages oil and gas development data to determine risks for communities and the planet — wants to see action beyond the federal level to tackle this issue.
"It would be really great if [states] saw federal regulations as a floor, then put in stronger regulations than what's required," Jones says.
Jones feels "hopeful" that the new federal regulations will help to accurately identify how much methane super-polluters are emitting, because, as she tells , "it seems to be chronically underestimated."
If the state and country are to reach their climate goals, accurate emission data is crucial, because methane has 28 times more warming potential than CO2. As the second-largest gas producing state in the country with a long history of extraction, Pennsylvania also simply has a different relationship with methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas.
Rob Altenburg, the Energy Center Director at PennFuture — an organization helping to drive the transition to a clean energy economy in Pennsylvania — notes that "after the fracking is done, we already have an enormous problem with orphaned gas wells. We do not have an adequate bonding scheme that those wells will be closed after production now."
The Pa. Department of Environmental Protection has documented 25,000 wells, but this is only a fraction of what's out there. Altenburg says 200,000 is a conservative estimate for the amount of wells that require bonding (or sealing off), while some estimates are upwards of 700,000 .
But it's not just old wells that are causing the issues, it's new development, too. One of Jones' biggest concerns with methane is the amount of shale gas development that's housed in Pennsylvania.
"We have over 14,000 fracking wells that have been built in the state, and it's only going to increase with the hydrogen hub that is proposed in the region," she cautions.
The hub would eventually make blue hydrogen , which is hydrogen produced from fracked gas and carbon capture and sequestration techniques. Pennsylvania is slated to partially house parts of two federally proposed hydrogen hub projects, with one on either side of the state. Regional and even international leaders see massive energy potential in the gas.
Although the project already has billions of federal dollars behind it, there still remains uncertainty around the trajectory and feasibility of the project.
Sean O'Leary, a senior researcher with the Ohio River Valley Institute, doesn't foresee the project amounting to the image that's being projected to people around these hubs.
"I think, frankly, no one has any idea what the hydrogen hub will look like," O'Leary says. "Almost certainly, the hydrogen hub will turn out to be considerably less than what people think it will be."
Altenburg also maintains some wariness around hydrogen, but acknowledges that it may have some value, though unknown.
"Hydrogen will never be a huge player in electric generation in general. There may be some legitimate roles for it to play in decarbonization, but we're not sure," Altenburg says. "We want to be very clear on the problems we want to solve. Let's get a realistic assessment where this can be a factor and see where we can decarbonize in that."
Politicians are touting this project as revolutionizing clean energy, but how can something relying on greenhouse gasses create clean energy? Would methane no longer be a concern?
"Even if there are regulations on those wells, it's still going to lead to a lot of methane emission," Altenburg asserts. "We're not going to have hydro piped into our homes. We already have leaks with gas, so that leaves few niche opportunities for hydrogen."
Jones also raises concern over state agencies having capacity to monitor such development and infrastructure.
"[Pennsylvania] already has an issue with having less capacity than it needs to conduct all the inspections and enforce regulations, so, with these new programs, it causes concern for how these projects are going to operate on the ground," Jones warns.
When asked if the Ohio River Valley can take part in the renewable, green energy transition, even with the region's fossil fuel legacy, O'Leary sounds optimistic: "Not only can we, we should because one of the other characteristics at work here is that there is a widespread impression that the region's natural gas economy is vital, but that couldn't be further from the truth."
O'Leary says the transition to renewable energy is possible — with proper organization.
"The practice of transitions to renewable resources is something that needs to be planned. It does need to be done in an orderly fashion," O'Leary tells . "But it starts with a commitment to doing it, and so far that isn't something we've seen emerge in our area."
The sluggish progress isn't for lack of will, though. There are bigger forces at play.
"The problem is, of course, that around the natural gas industry in particular, and gasoline and other substances, we have massive industries built up," says O'Leary. "They're the primary driving force for why the transition is not made or being made more aggressively."
