Biden’s hydrogen energy plan raises environmental concerns.

A component of President Joe Biden’s green energy campaign has encountered an unexpected hurdle. Environmentalist groups are expressing concerns that new green energy plants could worsen a local water shortage and harm the coastal ecosystem.

The city of Corpus Christi in Texas is being considered for up to $1 billion in taxpayer funds under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This bill, part of Mr. Biden’s initiative, includes funding for green energy projects. If approved, the funds would be used to establish a regional hub for producing hydrogen fuel, a low-emission energy source created through water electrolysis.

However, finding a suitable water source for hydrogen fuel production in Corpus Christi poses a challenge due to the city’s ongoing drought. Local officials supporting the hydrogen fuel hub propose building desalination plants along the Gulf Coast to provide the necessary water supply. Environmentalists, on the other hand, warn that desalination plants could harm coastal ecosystems. These plants extract saltwater, remove the salt, and discharge a briny byproduct.

Corpus Christi is just one of several potential locations for IIJA-funded hydrogen fuel production hubs, and other candidate sites also raise concerns among environmental groups.

The Biden administration is offering companies up to $100 billion in tax credits and regions up to $7 billion in grants to develop hydrogen fuel production hubs, with a goal of producing 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen fuel by 2050.

Desalination Projects Fuel Environmental Concerns

The Sierra Club, a prominent U.S. environmental organization, issued a statement last summer, cautioning that proposed desalination plants around Corpus Christi “would dump harmful brine into the bay that endangers sea life and the vitality of the coastal waters.”

While the United States has numerous desalination plants that primarily treat slightly brackish water from inland sources, experts believe the conversion of highly saline ocean water into fresh water carries even greater risks.

“It doesn’t make sense to create a so-called clean energy source that ultimately destroys an entire ecosystem, threatens other economies dependent on a healthy bay system, and depletes the water supply for residents,” expressed the Coastal Alliance to Protect the Environment, an environmental group based in Corpus Christi, in a recent letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Out of the 33 projects on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) shortlist for new hydrogen production sites, nine are located in water-stressed areas, according to data collected by Rystad Energy consultancy and shared with Reuters. These locations include Southern California.