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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Maryland is now officially the tenth state to adopt the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, phasing in zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles between model year 2027 and 2035. (news release)
GRID:
OFFSHORE WIND:
SOLAR:
COAL: Residents of Baltimore’s Curtis Bay community want Maryland not to renew a rail company’s air permit because of the neighborhood pollution caused by its coal dust pile. (Baltimore Sun)
FINANCE: A Washington, D.C. property assessed clean energy loan program surpasses $100 million in financed projects following the close of a $6.1 million financing of efficiency and renewable energy measures at a Georgetown hotel. (news release)
AFFORDABILITY: Eversource proposes a significant electric supply rate drop that should reduce power bills by around 35% starting in February. (WMUR)
CLIMATE: In Maine, some Portland residents say plans to cut down trees to expand a surface parking lot at the airport are entirely out-of-step with the region’s climate goals. (Portland Press Herald, Maine Public Radio)
CLIMATE: Black Americans’ migration to the Southeast to escape environmental racism and poor health outcomes in the North and Midwest means a growing number of people are moving toward the epicenter of the climate crisis. (Capital B)
BIOMASS: Opponents of a wood pellet producer’s planned Alabama plant cheer reports the company is experiencing a financial crisis that could undercut its plans to expand. (Inside Climate News)
POLITICS:
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STORAGE:
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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR:
OVERSIGHT:
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UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority projects the need to boost power production due to rising demand from electric cars, data centers and overall economic growth. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
COMMENTARY: Indiana should emulate Kentucky’s example and pass a law making it more difficult for utilities to close coal-fired power plants to ensure grid reliability, writes a Republican town council member. (Cleburne Times-Review)
NUCLEAR: California regulators vote to allow the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to continue operating for five years beyond its scheduled 2025 retirement date. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
SOLAR: An Arizona solar panel installation firm ceases operations, lays off dozens of employees and files for bankruptcy. (Phoenix Business Journal, subscription)
TRANSPORTATION: An analysis finds California’s zero-emissions vehicle mandates and other climate programs could lead to a nearly $6 billion decrease in gasoline tax revenues and a shortage of highway repair funds. (CalMatters)
HYDROPOWER: Northwest tribal nations and environmentalists say their $1 billion salmon recovery deal with the Biden administration is a road map for dismantling hydropower dams. (Associated Press)
STORAGE: California’s energy commission awards a firm $30 million to build a long duration iron-air battery storage project near Mendocino. (news release)
UTILITIES:
WIND: A Washington state advisory council will decide next month whether to recommend approval of a controversial proposed 200-turbine wind facility near Kennewick. (Tri Cities Area Journal of Business)
COMMENTARY: California needs to stop bickering over the minutiae of net metering policy and cost-shifting and wholeheartedly embrace rooftop solar to tackle climate change, an energy journalist argues. (Los Angeles Times)
The following story is the fourth in a series produced in collaboration with KAXE/KBXE, an independent, nonprofit community radio station that tells the stories of northern Minnesota.
A Hoyt Lakes native leading a regional hydrogen partnership says the emerging fuel source could someday help make Minnesota’s Iron Range a leader in the production of green steel.
“Yes, certainly it has great potential,” said Tom Erickson, president and chief operating officer of the Heartland Hydrogen Hub, one of seven regional projects recently funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to kickstart hydrogen fuel production. “The first obvious use of hydrogen within the taconite (mining) industry is just to produce electricity.”
The federal government is investing billions to develop regional hydrogen production hubs, intended to spur the infrastructure needed to increase the supply and lower the cost enough to make it commercially viable.
Hydrogen emits only water vapor and warm air when burned, but it’s typically produced from natural gas in a process that creates high greenhouse gas emissions. The Heartland Hydrogen Hub will use renewable energy and nuclear power to try to reduce the climate impact, as well as the price tag.
The initial focus will be on supplying hydrogen for ammonia fertilizer, but Erickson said the same output could also replace more carbon-intensive fuels used to heat and power taconite mining operations on the Iron Range.
“That industry uses a lot of natural gas for heat and thermal systems, for producing the pellets,” Erickson said. “You’d have to design (the systems) quite a bit differently, but you could certainly add some hydrogen power to that and decrease the emissions from that standpoint.”
The most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen has historically been difficult to harness into energy. The Hindenburg Disaster of 1937 is an infamous example that demonstrates hydrogen’s explosive qualities.
“You can’t mine it. You can’t stick a pipe in the ground, then bring hydrogen up. You have to produce it from something else. It’s the smallest molecule, the hardest one to trap,” Erickson explained. “It’s the hardest one to move around once you’ve produced it, so we have some things that we need to get over and get behind coming up with new innovative ideas to really bring the costs down.”
Most commercial hydrogen is produced today by separating the hydrogen atoms from methane under high heat and pressure, with many industrial facilities using natural gas as the methane source. This method produces hydrogen, carbon monoxide and a relatively small amount of carbon dioxide.
Electrolysis splits hydrogen from water using an electric current. This method does not create any byproducts or emissions other than oxygen and hydrogen. It is the primary focus of the Department of Energy’s investment into hydrogen energy.
The Heartland Hydrogen Hub’s projects are expected to reduce carbon emissions by roughly 1 million metric tons per year, the equivalent of 220,000 gasoline-powered cars.
Erickson — who is also the director of exploratory research at University of North Dakota — said infrastructure for hydrogen’s use on a wider scale is in the future.
“Shipping — whether it’s trains or whether it’s ships moving large quantities of oil around — they are even bigger targets,” he said. “Maybe even a little bit easier targets for application of the hydrogen fuel.”
Erickson, whose grandfather and numerous other relatives worked in the taconite mines on the Iron Range, said technology to produce higher quality taconite pellets has been studied in Keewatin, where U.S. Steel plans to invest $150 million in a new higher-grade taconite plant.
“Folks on the Range have looked at (higher grade taconite pellets) produced from natural gas, from coal derived gases and of course from hydrogen,” Erickson said.
The Heartland Hydrogen Hub is currently in the concept development phase, and Erickson said he is excited for the advancing technology in energy for the future.
“What I’m most excited about is to start to see larger scale production of hydrogen,” he said. “Once we start producing it, we can start to find other ways to utilize the things that advantages society, different ways that we can manipulate the molecule …. to provide clean, reliable and sustainable energy.”
Steel is made using a lot of heat, and coal-powered blast furnaces are still used for 57% of global steelmaking capacity. That’s a decrease from the year before, when 67% of the world’s steel capacity was made using blast furnaces — marking a shift toward electric arc furnace technology worldwide.
The Iron Range supplies three-fourths of the country’s iron ore, from which steel is made. Steelmakers such as U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs, which own the mining operations on the Iron Range, are seeing growing pressure from governments, investors, and customers to reduce their climate emissions. It’s not just the potential for future environmental regulations. More companies are willing to pay a premium for steel that comes with a smaller carbon footprint.
Cutting emissions from mining and other heavy industry is expected to be a bigger challenge than cleaning up cars or power plants. That’s because of the need to power massive furnaces and other equipment for which electric alternatives aren’t widely available.
These factors are leading many manufacturers to be interested in the potential of hydrogen fuel. Cleveland-Cliffs, which owns and operates Hibbing Taconite, has already committed to funding a hydrogen power project at its Toledo plant. Without any modification to the plant, the company says it could replace up to 30% of natural gas consumption with hydrogen. And with equipment upgrades and other investments, this number could rise to 70%, accounting for 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year.
Cleveland-Cliffs is also part of a federally funded hydrogen hub based in northern Indiana. In October, the company was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by more than one-third.
The company didn’t respond to requests for comment on what its emission-cutting efforts might mean for northern Minnesota, but researcher Rolf Weberg said the state’s mining industry is well-positioned to make use of hydrogen fuel.
“It turns out that Minnesota is by far highly competitive for making green iron and steel, beyond other states in the country,” said Weberg, the executive director of University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Natural Resource Research Institute. “We have essentially all of the resources, including infrastructure for future energy and access to water. All the things you need to have for a hydrogen-based approach to preparing green iron and steel.”
With the future of hydrogen energy, Weberg said conversations with stakeholders are only just beginning.
“Minnesota industry has been investing to prepare for this,” Weberg said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for Minnesota to embrace, and the conversation is just started. This is an opportunity to really lead the charge in this area, and also do it in tandem with green hydrogen and green steel.”
An effort led by Chicago’s Blacks in Green has been recommended for $12.5 million in renewable energy credits to help develop three community solar projects to benefit underresourced communities.
The three projects totaling 9 MW are valued at $25.7 million and will be developed by the Green Energy Justice Cooperative, a project launched by Blacks in Green and other partners, to benefit Black, Brown and low and moderate-income subscribers in and around Aurora, Naperville, and Romeoville, Illinois. The Illinois Power Agency ranked the projects first, second and fourth among proposals vying for renewable energy credits in the Illinois Shines competition.
Naomi Davis, founder and CEO of Blacks in Green, says the recognition is the culmination of a long effort to ensure energy independence for her community.
“The importance of the industry was made very, very clear to me and others right from the start,” she said. “The opportunity was presenting itself with renewable energy credits that Blacks in Green and others had fought for, for over a decade to really build out the toolkit for the renewable energy industry in Illinois.”
“We’re delighted to partner with Blacks in Green to help create new sources of renewable energy in Aurora and Romeoville through the Green Energy Justice Co-op,” said Vibhu Kaushik, senior vice president and global head of energy, utilities, and storage at Prologis in a news release. “As a member of the local business community, Prologis is focused on working with our customers, local governments, and local partners like Blacks in Green to help create a vibrant and sustainable economy.”
Launched in 2022, the Green Energy Justice Cooperative, or GEJC, strives to provide low-income communities of color with the economic and political power of owning energy generation. It coordinates the efforts of organizations that have been working toward economically and racially just ownership of local clean energy and related energy justice issues in the Chicago area for decades.
Davis founded the Green Energy Justice Cooperative along with these board members:
The co-op also receives support and advice from Claretian Associates, North Lawndale Employment Network, Chicago Environmental Justice Network, Urban Juncture and Greenleaf Advisors.
“This is a tremendous win for Chicago and further highlights why collective action works,” said Anton Seals, Jr., GEJC board member and Lead Steward (executive director) of Grow Greater Englewood, in a news release. “Our communities need work and opportunities to support the brilliance and creativity to build a new economy that centers new concepts for commerce and energy in Black communities across the globe.”
Co-op member organizations, both individually and collectively, have sought to implement community-based solar since the passage of Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021 that set ambitious goals for the equitable transformation of the state’s energy portfolio by 2050. Davis deliberately chose and invited members of the co-op to work alongside Blacks in Green to ensure maximum collaboration and productivity.
“A cooperative is a democratically operated business entity. So, I was looking for people, number one, who I knew to be highly productive organizations; number two, whom I enjoyed being with and around and communicating with; [and] number three, that I trusted in a business context,” Davis said.
“I was not going to go shopping for a headache,” Davis continued. “I was going to go shopping for the very most collegial, effective, enjoyable people to be a part of the founding board.”
Renters, condominium owners, and homeowners unable to install solar will be co-owners of the solar co-op and accompanying profit sharing, and will have a voice in management. The co-op will also provide workforce training and capacity development, and present residents with a hands-on opportunity to help create an equitable clean energy transition that protects the environment in their own communities.
“This will ensure that the projects are completed and thereby demonstrate the power of solar sovereignty for ownership and wealth building by Blacks in distressed Black communities,” said Rev. Tony Pierce, GEJC board member and CEO of Sun Bright Energy, in a news release.
The co-op’s success in the Illinois Shines competition brings it one step closer to delivering the benefits of the burgeoning clean energy transition in Illinois to underserved and marginalized communities, which have suffered the double whammy of disinvestment and disproportionate detrimental impact of the effects of climate change.
“Given that many environmental justice communities like mine, in the far Southeast Side of Chicago, bear the brunt of climate change, this is a great opportunity to begin to undo and heal our communities from that harm,” said Olga Bautista, GEJC board member and co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, in a news release.
GEJC is also supported by partners at Cooperative Energy Futures, a Minnesota-based member-owned clean energy cooperative that has developed similar models of equitable community ownership of solar projects.
“We’re really excited to be supporting GEJC in bringing community-owned solar to GEJC’s local communities in Illinois,” said Cooperative Energy Futures General Manager Timothy DenHerder-Thomas in a news release. “Through our co-op in Minnesota, we’ve seen the power of this model in uniting communities around a clean energy future that works for renters and low-income households and makes sure local residents own and get the benefits too.”
The three GEJC community solar projects selected by the Illinois Power Agency will be presented to the Illinois Commerce Commission, the Illinois public utility regulatory body, in January 2024 for final approval for renewable energy credit contracts.
While this award represents a substantial win, it only represents one piece of ongoing work for Blacks in Green, whose mission Davis sums up as the establishment of a “walk to work, walk to shop, walk to learn, walk to play village, where African Americans own the businesses, own the land, and live the conservation lifestyle.”
“We are determined to expand our clean energy businesses.” Davis said. “That means we’re working to get funding so that we can work closely with our neighbors to educate, engage, train, mobilize, finance, and otherwise support ourselves in the design and implementation of local living economies in energy, horticulture, housing, tourism, and waste.
“We are here to, for example, decarbonize all of the buildings in our Sustainable Square Mile of West Woodlawn. And that’s no small feat to decarbonize the walkable village at scale,” Davis continued, saying that residents need to undertake weatherization measures and other costs before taking full advantage of clean energy technology.
Blacks in Green’s mission also includes work on a virtual power plant and clean energy microgrid, affordable energy legislation, and geothermal power.
“So, we’re on the ground taking all of the access points to, along the way to creating a triumph for ourselves in the tradition of our great migration ancestors,” Davis said.
And while she recognizes the importance and even necessity of philanthropy, Davis has no intention of relying solely on donors.
“We are looking to be our own emergency management system. At the end of the day when the ‘you know what’ hits the fan, we want our communities, our walkable villages to be ready not only because they have greater health and wealth, but because they have been in the process of creating an oasis of resilience against the harms of the climate crisis” Davis said. “That’s what we’re here to do.”
The following story is the third in a series produced in collaboration with KAXE/KBXE, an independent, nonprofit community radio station that tells the stories of northern Minnesota.
A Minnesota taconite mining company and its electric utility are seeking federal funding for a demonstration project aimed at slashing diesel fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.
After an unsuccessful attempt to secure money this spring from the state Legislature, U.S. Steel and Minnesota Power have applied for a U.S. Department of Energy grant in hopes of kickstarting the project, which seeks to test a system to partially power mining trucks with electricity.
Once loaded, the enormous vehicles would connect to overhead power lines for the steepest part of their climb from the open pit mine. Running on electricity for that portion could reduce diesel fuel use by 70% per trip, according to the companies’ presentation to legislators earlier this year.
That also means a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. A new Minnesota law requires power companies to only sell clean electricity by 2040, a target that Minnesota Power is making progress toward. If powered by carbon-free electricity, one mine trolley in the U.S. Steel demonstration project would equate to replacing 520 gas-powered vehicles with electric on Minnesota’s roads, each year.
David Chura, manager of emerging initiatives for Minnesota Power’s parent company ALLETE, said the pilot project would provide insight into whether trolley systems could be scaled across the industry. The steel industry is seeing growing pressure from government, investors, and customers to lower its climate impact. U.S. Steel has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
With the corporate green energy goals of Minnesota Power and U.S. Steel in mind, Chura said exploring applications of electrification in industrial settings was a natural step.
“We developed some model mines based on characteristics of actual mines here on the on the Iron Range,” Chura said. “That really helped inform our understanding of mine truck electrification and the opportunities here.”
Chura said energy savings are site-specific, meaning it depends on the steepness of the grade, the length of the haul and other factors. But this project’s anticipated fuel savings are 1.4 million gallons of diesel each year, amounting to 14,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. With those figures, mine trolleys could be a key approach to climate-friendly practices.
“That’s a very significant reduction of emissions as well as criteria pollutants in a key area of the state,” Chura said, noting the area’s proximity to the Boundary Waters, Voyageurs National Park, and state-designated environmental justice communities.
The idea of electric-powered mining trucks isn’t new. The 1970s oil crisis prompted numerous studies exploring benefits, according to mining electrification and automation company ABB. Despite this history, adoption has been slow. But ABB, which produces mine trolley systems, said recent projects demonstrating positive impacts show demand is on the rise. This includes in an open pit copper mine in Sweden operated by mining company Boliden.
Battery-powered electric mining trucks — which wouldn’t require hitching to a trolley line for hauling — are also moving closer to viability. In 2022, Caterpillar announced it successfully demonstrated a prototype of its first battery-powered truck at the company’s Tuscon, Arizona, proving grounds. The facility is set up to test sustainable solutions mining companies can use in their operations, offering firsthand experience with what it takes to run an electrified mining site.
Other types of clean fuel options are emerging, too. According to Caterpillar, green hydrogen production, fuel cell power generation and energy storage systems are all part of the equation.
“The site will also leverage a variety of renewable power sources, including wind, solar and hydrogen, capable of powering the facility and its products as they become electrified,” a news release stated. “The transformation of the facility will also serve as a learning platform for optimizing charging and energy management integration.”
The project in Minnesota would focus on converting existing trucks that operate on a diesel-electric hybrid system, similar to rail locomotives. Chura says some of these trucks, which have electric motors on each wheel, are already in use on the Iron Range.
Converting a truck to utilize overhead power lines to run the motors costs about $1.1 million, according to a presentation prepared for the Minnesota Legislature. The infrastructure costs would run $5 million-$8 million per mile, according to Chura. But the lines would be installed on the steepest parts of the trucks’ route, where the diesel engine works the hardest, resulting in substantial fuel savings.
“Just as the state has helped incentivize residential and commercial electric vehicle service, funding from either the state or the feds would help achieve those same benefits, but yet, at an industrial scale,” Chura said. “And those benefits really benefit all taxpayers.”
Bills were introduced in the state House and Senate this year to provide a $10 million grant, but they didn’t make it out of committee.
John Arbogast, District 11 staff representative for the United Steelworkers, testified in committee on behalf of the bill.
“Even some of the people that you thought might have been opposed to it were like, ‘Holy cow, is this interesting,’” Arbogast said.
Arbogast spent 26 years working at U.S. Steel’s MinnTac mine in Mountain Iron and is now the co-chair of the Iron Ore Alliance, a partnership between U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers. He said environmental policy issues are one subject on which the union and the company often find agreement.
The trolley system would also increase the speed of the trucks as they travel up the incline, an aspect Arbogast said he thinks will appeal to the mining truck drivers.
“I think our members, the men and women who drive the trucks, will really like that,” he said. “Because they’re really good at what they do, and they have a lot of pride in hauling the ore to the crusher and getting as many loads as they can in their 12-hour shifts.”
Chura noted that the faster speeds mean a site could potentially get by with fewer trucks, which can cost millions of dollars each.
State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, was chief author of the bill. He said he’s committed to fighting for the project into the future as part of an overall approach to a cleaner energy economy.
“Our mines are a critical part of that effort, and so why don’t we look for opportunities to move towards a cleaner industry, while also providing the very minerals and resources that we need in order to transition?” Hauschild said. “I think it’s a really a perfect putting-together of the puzzle pieces that make our region so strong and vital.”
The project partners turned their sights toward the federal government, applying for funds through the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. About $6 billion will fund projects aimed at reducing emissions in industrial subsectors, with award announcements expected early next year.
The following story is the second in a series produced in collaboration with KAXE/KBXE, an independent, nonprofit community radio station that tells the stories of northern Minnesota.
Minnesota taconite mine operator Cleveland-Cliffs is testing a new method for treating industrial wastewater in hopes of decreasing water, chemical and energy use — as well as costs.
The project is among several efforts by the company to lower its energy use as steelmakers face growing pressure from governments, investors, and customers to reduce the climate impact of their operations.
Energy efficiency is often the quickest and most cost-effective way for companies to cut their carbon footprint. When it comes to mining, the opportunity is as large as the massive trucks and other heavy-duty equipment used to haul and process taconite.
Cleveland-Cliffs was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for cutting companywide energy use by nearly one-third since 2017. The federal agency’s office of industrial efficiency and decarbonization is monitoring the water treatment project, as well.
“Bringing these emerging technologies out of the laboratory and onto the factory floor is a critical part of reaching our industrial decarbonization goals,” said Avi Schultz, director of the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.
Decarbonization refers to the process of lowering or eliminating emissions of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that causes climate change. The steel industry is among the three biggest sources of carbon emissions on the planet, accounting for around 8% of all global carbon emissions. Most steelmakers, including those that own and operate the Iron Range’s taconite mines, have adopted internal goals for reducing emissions.
“One of the most important issues impacting our industry, our stakeholders and our planet is climate change,” Cleveland-Cliffs told its investors this year. “We plan to achieve our GHG emissions reduction goal by focusing on actionable, commercially viable technologies and solutions while supporting research for breakthrough technologies for the primary iron and steel sector.”
It cited its partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to implement and test energy-saving technology as a key piece of its climate strategy.
Cleveland-Cliffs operates Hibbing Taconite, United Taconite, Northshore Mining and the Minorca Mine on Minnesota’s Iron Range. The company is working with Arizona-based Dynamic Water Technologies on two pilot projects to reduce lost water and energy waste from treating wastewater.
The technologies are first being tested in a Cleveland, Ohio, plant.
Michael Boyko is the co-founder and director of business development for Dynamic Water Technologies. He said the equipment being studied is fundamentally better at what it does.
“These technologies are justified because they do it better, faster, and more cost effectively,” Boyko said. “If they were just an environmental benefit with no water, sewer, or chemical savings, it would be a harder sell to industrial clients.”
The project is piloting two different technologies for oil and hydrocarbon removal. One is called electrocoagulation, and the other is electrochemical water treatment.
Electrocoagulation is done by applying direct-current electricity to iron plates, which creates a coagulant that bonds with contaminants in the water and makes them much larger. These enlarged particles then either float to the top or sink to the bottom, making them easier to remove.
Boyko said this process eliminates the need for several chemical processes and various agitators, mixers and pumps along the way, making it more cost-effective and faster.
“There’s definitely a lot of energy savings, because we’re doing in one process what seven different chemical water treatment systems basically were doing,” he said.
Electrochemical water treatment, meanwhile, replaces chemical treatment of processed water within cooling towers using dynamic scale reactor technology. This technology quickens the natural process of scale buildup from minerals within reactor chambers, sequestering it for later removal. The process allows the same water to cycle through the system eight or more times, instead of as few as three.
Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to interview requests, but the company touted the technology’s environmental benefits in its most recent sustainability report.
“The alternative technology yielded significant reduction in solid waste from process water, and preliminary data shows it could also increase process water reuse,” the report said.
This technology is already in use at Los Angeles City Hall and the Juliette Gordon Low Federal Building in Savannah, Georgia, with federal government testing validating the positive effects.
Cleveland-Cliffs also participates in the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings program. The voluntary program encourages improved energy performance across industrial operations, which account for more than one-third of total U.S. end-use energy consumption.
“This is essential for the industrial sector, as inattention to greenhouse gas emissions, inefficient energy and water use, and excessive waste production can hurt domestic competitiveness in a global marketplace,” the department says.
A detailed report of the Cleveland-Cliffs project is expected to be issued by the end of the year.
With the federal government preparing to pour money into new regional production hubs and other incentives, the hydrogen industry is positioning itself for takeoff.
But hydrogen technology still hasn’t proven itself to be financially viable, or necessarily all that clean. Hydrogen doesn’t produce greenhouse gas emissions when burned, but making the fuel requires lots of — potentially dirty — energy. Most of it today is made with natural gas. A clean alternative involves a process using water and renewable electricity, but some want to keep using natural gas but with carbon capture — another technology still unproven on a larger scale.
Climate advocates want to keep hydrogen made with fossil fuels from being lumped in with cleaner sources, and say it shouldn’t qualify for forthcoming federal subsidies. Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies and other blue hydrogen backers have launched a federal lobbying blitz in hopes of getting on the Biden administration’s good side, the Energy News Network’s collaboration with OpenSecrets reveals.
Just a few dozen companies and organizations were lobbying the federal government regarding hydrogen when President Biden was elected in late 2020, Jimmy Cloutier of OpenSecrets reports. Now, that number is more than 200, including at least 32 oil and gas producers.
That influence could all have an impact on forthcoming rules governing where federal hydrogen incentives will go, which are expected before the year ends.
Read more from the Energy News Network and OpenSecrets here.
🇺🇲 IRA’s foreign influence: While the Inflation Reduction Act continues to rankle Republican lawmakers, foreign leaders say its “green patriotism” and incentives for domestic clean energy manufacturing provide a blueprint for climate plans they can sell across the political spectrum. (New York Times, Politico)
🔌 EV chargers’ reliability problem: Today’s electric vehicle charging stations largely fall below reliability standards the federal government is requiring they meet before they can access $5 billion in new funding. (Canary Media)
🔋 What’s next for batteries: As more renewables are added to the power grid, researchers are exploring new battery technologies with longer storage durations and more widely available materials than lithium-ion batteries. (Utility Dive)
⚡ Electrification diet: A planning process known as “watt dieting” could enable many homeowners to switch to fully electric appliances without a costly panel upgrade. (Canary Media)
📰 Fake news, fossil fuel edition: At least seven major news outlets create and publish misleading advertisements for fossil fuel companies intended to look like credible editorial content, an analysis finds. (Intercept)
🏭 Stopping smog: A new federal air pollution rule cut smog-forming emissions 18% in 10 states this past summer, and would’ve had a bigger impact if legal challenges hadn’t stopped its implementation in 12 other states. (Grist)
The COP28 climate summit ended yesterday, after disagreements sent negotiations into overtime. Here’s how the U.S. got involved in the last week.
This story was produced in partnership with OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. Jimmy Cloutier is the political reporter at opensecrets.org. He can be reached at jcloutier@opensecrets.org.
The number of companies and organizations lobbying the federal government on issues related to hydrogen increased nearly tenfold since President Joe Biden took office — from about two dozen at the end of 2020 to more than 200 this year, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of lobbying disclosures.
Fossil fuel companies, which have promoted hydrogen as a catch-all solution to climate change, rank among the top spenders and outnumber clients from every industry, including the renewable energy sector, the analysis shows.
Thirty-two oil and gas producers reported lobbying on hydrogen, among other issues, and spent a combined $41.3 million on federal lobbying efforts this year, as of Sept. 30.
The lobbying blitz comes as the Biden administration prepares to direct billions of dollars in federal subsidies to scale up hydrogen production to decarbonize the U.S. economy. Unlike coal, oil and gas, hydrogen does not release planet-warming greenhouse gases when burned.
The number of companies and organizations that reported lobbying on issues related to hydrogen has increased tenfold since President Joe Biden, who promised aggressive action on the climate crisis, entered office, according to federal lobbying disclosures.
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Many climate advocates support this move but warn against incentivizing hydrogen projects that could prolong the use of fossil fuels.
It is possible to produce so-called “green hydrogen” using water and renewable energy, but about 95% of hydrogen is currently derived from natural gas, which generates large amounts of climate pollution.
The fossil fuel industry has aggressively lobbied the White House, Congress, and Energy and Treasury departments to ensure gas-based hydrogen qualifies for federal subsidies. The industry claims it can produce climate-friendly “blue hydrogen” from natural gas using carbon capture, a nascent technology still in early development.
In 2022, the American Petroleum Institute, which represents nearly 600 oil and gas companies, submitted comments on the Energy Department’s draft National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap emphasizing the near-term cost advantages of blue hydrogen. The industry group’s climate action framework, published the previous year, also called for “full government funding” of low-carbon research and development programs and urged policy-makers to adopt a “technology-neutral” approach to the energy transition.
Julie McNamara, the deputy policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a think tank, told OpenSecrets that the government risks “aiding and abetting fossil fuel” interests.
“There are so many ways that hydrogen can go that it just perpetuates the status quo,” she explained.
“That is an extremely lucrative place for the fossil fuel industry to be,” she said. “If we have weak standards, it can mean more use of natural gas for longer with more profit along the way.”
Climate advocates have urged the Biden administration to enact strict guardrails to ensure hydrogen projects deliver on their climate promises. They want the federal government to prioritize the development of green hydrogen and limit its use to heavy industries that cannot be electrified, like aviation and steel. They also emphasize the need to accelerate the buildout of renewable energy infrastructure to meet the demands of green hydrogen production, which requires a significant amount of electricity.
Getting hydrogen wrong, McNamara added, would be a “catastrophic waste of time.”
Thirty-two oil and gas companies reported lobbying on hydrogen, spending a combined $41.3 million on federal lobby efforts in the first nine months of 2023. Top spenders include several fossil fuel producers that stand to receive billions in federal funding to develop regional clean hydrogen hubs.
In response to interview requests from OpenSecrets, the American Petroleum Institute shared a study it commissioned “on the benefits of low-carbon hydrogen.” The study concluded that “uniform incentives” for blue and green hydrogen would lead to the fastest buildout of hydrogen infrastructure.
The American Petroleum Institute spent nearly $4.5 million lobbying the federal government in the first nine months of 2023.
Companies and industry groups report lobbying on dozens of issues, making it difficult to tell from disclosures how big a priority hydrogen was for oil and gas companies. But several leading fossil fuel producers — such as BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil — have invested in hydrogen initiatives and made the alternative fuel source a key component of their low-carbon solutions programs.
The companies, which all reported lobbying on hydrogen, also stand to benefit from generous government grants and tax credits intended to phase out fossil fuels.
In October, the Energy Department announced plans to award $7 billion to seven proposed regional hydrogen hubs, including $1.2 billion to a Texas project that counts fossil fuel giants Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66 and Shell as partners. BP and Exxon Mobil are also involved in developing a Midwest hub that will receive $1 billion through the same government program.
Three of the hubs awarded federal funding are expected to produce hydrogen from natural gas, according to press releases and publicly available information. The Texas hub will produce hydrogen from natural gas and a renewables-powered electrolyzer, while the Midwest hub will rely on a mix of natural gas, renewable energy and nuclear energy.
A third hub in Appalachia — spanning West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania — will produce hydrogen entirely from natural gas. Project developers include Marathon Petroleum.
In response to requests for comment, a Chevron spokesperson told OpenSecrets that the company is “committed to working with policymakers to help inform well-designed energy policy that effectively reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”
A Marathon spokesperson said the company is seeking “clarity on upcoming regulations.” Other companies named in this article did not respond to requests for comment.
The reaction from climate advocates to the hub announcement was mixed.
“We expected there to be a little more green hydrogen,” said Erik Kamrath, hydrogen policy advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He noted that the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021, which authorized the awards, required only one project producing hydrogen from fossil fuels to be selected.
The awards are still subject to negotiations and environmental reviews, but McNamara said the Energy Department left the door open to “unproductive at best, actively harmful at worst” production methods that rely on natural gas and carbon capture.
“Hydrogen can drive up pollution from fossil-fuel-based uses, and worse, perpetuate ongoing use of fossil fuels,” McNamara said. “That’s not the path we need to be on.”
In an email to OpenSecrets, an Energy Department spokesperson said, “DOE’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program is essential to achieving the President’s vision of a strong clean hydrogen economy that creates healthier communities, strengthens energy security, and delivers new economic opportunities across the nation.”
The department, which environmental groups have criticized for its lack of transparency, did not answer emailed questions about the hydrogen hubs and instead directed OpenSecrets to online pages containing high-level overview of the agency’s hydrogen hub program and awards negotiation process.
Climate advocates and the fossil fuel industry are also squabbling over additional clean hydrogen tax credits authorized through Biden’s signature climate spending package, the Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year. The tax credit is worth up to $3 per kilogram for hydrogen produced using low-emissions processes.
Green hydrogen produced without fossil fuels is energy-intensive, and climate advocates want to limit the incentive to hydrogen produced using new, rather than existing, clean energy sources.
“We are in a renewables constrained environment,” said McNamara, explaining that if hydrogen production scales up too quickly and relies on existing renewable infrastructure then electricity providers may have to turn to fossil fuels to keep up with energy demands.
Some hydrogen producers and fossil fuel companies who support looser regulations argue that stringent requirements will slow development and delay the U.S. transition to clean energy.
Last week, Bloomberg and Politico reported that leaked draft rules on the tax credits indicated the Biden administration would require producers to rely on newly built renewable energy.
The Treasury Department is expected to formally issue a rule by the end of the year.
The following story is the first in a series produced in collaboration with KAXE/KBXE, an independent, nonprofit community radio station that tells the stories of northern Minnesota.
World leaders in Dubai this week are concluding the latest United Nations conference on climate change, where experts and advocates repeated urgent pleas for governments to phase out fossil fuels and transition to clean energy.
In Minnesota, that change is underway. A new state law requires power companies to only sell clean electricity by 2040. Electric vehicle sales are growing, and energy efficient heat pumps are starting to replace gas furnaces — even in northern Minnesota.
But one of the biggest challenges for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota will be finding clean energy solutions for one of the state’s biggest industries: taconite mining. The state’s Iron Range supplies three-quarters of the raw material used to make domestic steel. Getting it out of the ground requires massive, diesel-powered trucks and other heavy-duty equipment for which less-polluting options aren’t yet widely available.
The steelmaking industry is facing pressure from customers and governments to reduce its climate impact, and Minnesota mine operators Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel are both exploring new fuels and technologies to help them meet sustainability goals.
According to the companies’ public statements to shareholders, the path forward is likely to include investments in new, more efficient vehicles and equipment, along with a switch to powering them with renewable electricity, biogas, or hydrogen instead of coal or gas.
U.S. Steel announced in April 2021 a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Cleveland-Cliffs says it’s already exceeded its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2030.
The transition to clean energy could create new economic opportunities for the Iron Range, experts say, including the possibility to process iron ore on-site into a cleaner, premium product.
A recent event hosted by the city of Duluth and the National Renewable Energy Lab called industrial decarbonization the “billion-dollar question for the Northland.” Rolf Weberg, leader of the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute, says industrial operations have a real interest in reducing their carbon footprints.
“When you look globally between steel and concrete, that accounts for between 16-18% of carbon dioxide emissions globally,” Weberg explained. “Countries and industries are really trying to reduce their carbon footprint because we’re not meeting carbon goals across the globe.”
Weberg said NREL is interested in Minnesota because of its resources. Hydrogen, for example, is a clean-burning fuel that can be produced with no emissions using water and renewable energy – both relatively plentiful in Minnesota.
“(This includes) infrastructure for future energy, access to water — all of the things you need to have a hydrogen-based approach to preparing green iron and steel,” he said.
Aaron Brown, a Hibbing native and columnist who has written extensively about the region’s culture and economy, says the Iron Range is in a unique position to capitalize on new technologies and production methods designed to eliminate climate emissions. For example, one strategy steelmakers are exploring involves processing higher-grade iron pellets in electric arc furnaces, which is less geographically constrained by access to coal.
“What the new technology might do is create opportunities for entrepreneurs, and existing companies like Cleveland-Cliffs or U.S. Steel, to produce (steel) in Minnesota,” Brown said in a phone interview. “Now, whether that will happen or not, of course, is subject to speculation, but it is an opportunity to open up modern industry near the mouth of iron mines. And that should be very interesting to people in northern Minnesota.”
Minnesota’s Iron Range has experienced monumental shifts since settlers found iron-rich deposits there in the late 19th century. The giants of American industry — James J. Hill, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller — collectively created U.S. Steel, the world’s first billion-dollar company, with iron ore largely mined from the Iron Range.
Taconite is a hard, dense rock containing a mixture of silicates and magnetite. After it’s mined in vast open pits, it is crushed into a fine powder, with the magnetite extracted to eventually create marble-sized pellets that contain over 65% iron.
Mining efforts in the Mesabi Iron Range have focused on taconite ore, a lower-grade iron ore processed from vast pits, since the 1950s. Taconite mining transformed the region after underground mining depleted the high-grade hematite deposits. Forty million tons of iron ore are mined there each year.
That ore from Minnesota is shipped across the Great Lakes to plants from Chicago to Pittsburgh, where it is combined with coke, a product derived from coal that is shipped by rail from Appalachia to make steel.
But what if coal were taken out of this equation? New shifts in technology are moving toward using specially formulated iron briquettes in electric arc furnaces instead of lower-grade iron materials in coal-powered blast furnaces. And Iron Range taconite plant owners Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel are both increasing production of a new type of iron pellet that does not require coal-powered blast furnaces to process into steel. Electricity can be used instead, meaning a rail connection to coal mines may no longer be necessary for processing the raw material into steel.
These direct reduced-grade pellets are a metallic iron product instead of an iron oxide product like taconite. And they require less energy to process. The company did not respond to interview requests, but its website lists the environmental benefits of these pellets.
“If we converted United Taconite’s full standard pellet production … net greenhouse gas emissions would decrease by approximately 370,000 tons per year,” Cleveland-Cliffs states.
U.S. Steel announced in 2022 plans to break ground on a new $150 million direct reduced iron production facility near Keewatin on the Range. In November 2022, the company announced Keetac was the selected site for the expanded operation. Keetac currently employs about 400 people.
“Keetac’s high quality ore body and long mine life makes it the best choice for DR-grade pellet capabilities. We will have the ability to produce both blast furnace and DR-grade pellets at Keetac in the future. These actions will allow us to become increasingly self-sufficient to feed our mini mills segment with key metallics.”
Weberg defines “green” iron and steel as having no fossil fuels involved at any point in its production.
“Our iron industry in Minnesota has been working toward this for some time,” Weberg said. “Our colleagues at Cleveland-Cliffs and at U.S. Steel have been making significant progress with direct reduced grade pellets.”
Brown speculated about a possible future with steel created using hydrogen power and what that could mean for the Iron Range.
“What hydrogen steel might do for Minnesota is create the opportunity … for efficient and profitable steel production near where the mining occurs — an opportunity that doesn’t exist now because the cost of getting the coke and coal … to Minnesota is prohibitive,” Brown said.
As in decades before, the ebbs and flows of the global steel market will continue to impact the Iron Range. As policymakers and manufacturers look toward a sustainable future, the Iron Range may be well poised to prosper in a new, green economy built on the industrious foundation of its core: mining.
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