American Petroleum Institute concerned over DOE’s Clean Hydrogen Strategy

The draft National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap from the Department of Energy (DOE) has received comments, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The API applauded the DOE for promoting a clean hydrogen economy in its comments, but also expressed worry that the roadmap fails to appropriately take into account various methods of producing hydrogen and the short-term advantages of cooperating with current hydrogen users, such as refineries.

According to a statement from the organization, API Vice President of Corporate Policy Aaron Padilla, “the oil and natural gas industry has a substantial role to play and interest in the emergence of a clean hydrogen economy.”

The deployment of low-carbon hydrogen will be crucial in achieving the country’s climate goals because it will allow for considerable reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the industrial, transportation, and power sectors, Padilla continued.

“While we appreciate DOE’s commitment to a clean hydrogen economy, the advantages of hydrogen produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage for near-term, low-cost GHG emission reductions are not covered by the present roadmap. We implore DOE to encourage all forms of clean hydrogen production in order to fully utilize hydrogen’s capacity to reduce emissions, continued Padilla.

In response to the API’s criticisms of the DOE’s National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, Rigzone has requested a statement from the DOE. The DOE has not yet responded to Rigzone’s request as of this writing.

According to the DOE’s website, the draft National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap investigates the potential for clean hydrogen to support national goals in a variety of sectors and offers a snapshot of current hydrogen production, transport, storage, and usage in the U.S.

The roadmap was published on the DOE website on September 22, 2022, following the announcement of its release and request for feedback from the public by U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm during the Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh. The public feedback period was open until December 1, 2022.