The list of red states searching for green riches in the clean tech sector now includes Missouri. Green hydrogen is included, but there is a catch. The opportunity to micromanage the lives of women, girls, and anybody else who is capable of carrying a pregnancy is being seized by many of these same red states. That might make it harder for them to find and keep the STEM expertise they’ll need to get those green hydrogen ideas forward.
GREEN HYDROGEN BUG CAUGHT IN MISSISSIPPI With help from a 6-3 majority of Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices , clean power has lagged behind in some Republican states. Regardless of national legislation, the overall advantages of wind and solar electricity are difficult to ignore at the state level. Businesses are moving away from fossil fuels and accelerating the transition to clean energy. Their clout can help bridge partisan divides among decision-makers.
According to the most recent state rankings from the Solar Energy Industries Association, for instance, bright red, abortion-banning Texas is ranked #2 for installed solar capacity, only behind blue-leaning California. At least two additional states that make the SEIA top 10 list, Florida and Georgia, also pose a threat to women’s right to an unborn child.
The wind business has a similar pattern. Texas far outperforms the competition in terms of wind energy, followed by a ragtag group of red, blue, and purple states including Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
The partisan vanishing act has been pushed further by the growing green hydrogen market, which has added another bottom line perspective to wind and solar growth. In addition to being a common industrial and agricultural product, hydrogen is also a kind of energy storage that may be moved by road, rail, ship, or pipeline. This opens up new business prospects for wind and solar energy developers.
Now we are in Missouri. Plans for a new interstate wind power transmission line starting in Kansas have run afoul of the state’s obstinate opposition. However, Missouri’s domestic wind sector has expanded in part because of the green steel movement.
Ameren, a utility, is also supporting renewable energy, and it appears that they are considering adding green hydrogen to their portfolio. Ameren announced the Greater St. Louis and Illinois Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub Industrial Cluster on August 9 alongside partners in Missouri and Illinois.
To be clear, the term “clean H2” can refer to hydrogen obtained from a variety of sources, including natural gas, which is currently the primary source of hydrogen on the international market. The clean viewpoint comes into play when new carbon capture technology, which has not yet been validated in the crucial area of commercial feasibility, is combined with gas-to-hydrogen systems.
It’s a really decent bet if you think that the new St. Louis clean H2 hub will eventually abandon the natural gas aspect and turn its attention to green hydrogen produced from renewable resources. Electrolysis systems, which use renewable energy to extract hydrogen gas from water, are the subject of much of the research and development in the green hydrogen industry. Both the price of electrolysis and renewable energy are falling like a rock, although the price of natural gas fluctuates with the market, currently primarily rising.
Anyway, nobody is being duped by the entire clean hydrogen story. As quickly as new technology permits, automakers and other firms are attempting to decarbonize their supply chains, which leaves little room for natural gas in the long run.
Green Hydrogen visits my state. Another simple explanation for why we believe that green hydrogen will be the main emphasis of the new St. Louis center. One of the partners is the US company Plug Power . The company primarily concentrated on hydrogen fuel cell forklifts, but it has now branched out into a variety of other areas, such as electrolysis equipment for environmentally friendly hydrogen production.
One person who is not relying on natural gas with carbon capture is Don Govel of Plug Power.
He stated in a press release that Plug is honored to work with this diverse collection of forward-thinking public and private sector leaders to deliver clean energy solutions through our world-class green hydrogen technologies.
Another supporter of green hydrogen in the alliance is Mitsubishi Power. As the supply chain develops, the corporation is promoting gas turbines for power plants that can switch to green hydrogen. In Utah’s ACES advanced energy project, which contains a sizable amount of green hydrogen, Mitsubishi is already actively involved.
On the other hand, the company MPLX LP is additionally taking part through Marathon Petroleum Corp. That might be caused by MPLX’s fossil energy storage and transportation systems, which might be converted to produce green hydrogen.
The Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois, Walmart, Plug Power, Spire, Washington University in St. Louis, Marquis Industrial Complex, Alton Steel, The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc., Burns McDonnell, and the Missouri University of Science and Technology round out the team.
WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS? That is a good question, if you’re wondering how the Urban League fits in. The US Department of Energy ‘s $8 billion funding round for at least four regional clean hydrogen hubs around the nation, which is backed by President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law that narrowly passed Congress last autumn, is most likely the answer.
Economic and environmental justice are on the menu because this is a Joe Biden establishment. The Energy Department stresses that successful applicants for the new hydrogen hubs must keep in mind that labor and community engagement will be a crucial component to effective implementation over the course of the H2Hub project.
The Energy Department continues, “Teams are urged to maximize effective, early engagement with stakeholders, including disadvantaged communities, Tribal communities, and labor unions to address workforce or other economic problems and possibilities.”
WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE PREGNANT? If the pro-abortion trend continues, the Energy Department and other federal agencies may need to broaden their definition of the workforce or other economic possibilities to include persons who were born with uteruses.
The phrase “pro-life” looks good on bumper stickers, but in legal terms it is nothing more than a fetish that lowers the human biological system to a vessel for reproduction under the control of the community. That doesn’t provide uterus-enabled folks a lot of room to practice their own civil and human rights.
Abortion restrictions are Well, never mind in grounds of economic equality. All of it has been said. Let’s just say that when prosecutors are empowered interprets the law after the fact, it’s a horrible day for human rights.
When pregnant women who are at risk of homicide are refused a routine medical surgery that could save their lives, it is an even worse day.
homicide is a leading cause of mortality for pregnant people should be sufficient justification for allowing pregnant women to make decisions regarding their own life and death.
According to a study published in the journal Nature in November, homicide kills US women who are pregnant or were pregnant within the previous 42 days (the post-partum period) more than twice as frequently as bleeding or placental disorders, which are the two most common causes of what are typically categorized as pregnancy-related deaths.
Additionally, having a baby increases the risk of dying by homicide: between the ages of 10 and 44, women who are pregnant or whose pregnancy has ended recently are slain at a rate that is 16% greater than that of women who are not pregnant.
On June 24, Missouri’s abortion law became trigger law went in to effect , deleting the exceptions for rape and incest, as state legislators compete for a piece of the $8 billion hydrogen hub prize. Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices 0 in the state are frantically trying to assist individuals seeking abortions as they attempt to cross the border into Illinois, where, for the time being at least, pregnant women’s legal rights are still protected.
Although the full effects of Missouri’s abortion ban haven’t yet materialized, the Biden administration may need to include a pregnancy rights clause in federal contracts if it is serious about promoting equality in the workplace.
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Tanks for hydrogen, courtesy of Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices 2.
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