PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania – At a press conference Friday at Philadelphia International Airport, President Joe Biden celebrated the $7 billion federal investment in new hydrogen production sites in the city through his infrastructure bill.
“This hub alone will produce 100,000 tons of hydrogen a year,” Biden said.
But 14 different environmental groups in the state, including the Better Pass Coalition, aren’t celebrating.
“They’re putting a lot of money into hydrogen development, even though there’s proven scalable renewable energy that really needs to be deployed,” said founder Karen Ferridan.
Feridan also said hydrogen itself can be harmful to the atmosphere, but President Biden said it was necessary.
“Factories require materials processed at temperatures over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit to accomplish that. You can’t do that. You have to burn fuel to accomplish that. Wind and solar power can’t accomplish that. We can’t. We can’t create that much energy.’ That’s where hydrogen comes in,” Biden said.
Additionally, President Biden said the project would put thousands more people to work.
“We have 20,800 jobs at this site. We have plumbers, plumbers, electricians, laborers, a lot of jobs,” Biden said.
But Ferridan argues these are not the kinds of jobs Pennsylvania needs.
“We know for a fact that real family-supporting jobs and long-lasting jobs are jobs in renewable energy, so the only thing we can do is develop more jobs that will not meet our goals.” There is no argument in favor of leaving us with a dirtier planet,” Feridan said.
So Faridan said her organization is already planning to fight these projects before they are built.
“All of these projects need to go through approval, all of them need to be allowed, so the next opportunity is to take on each of these projects,” Feridan said.