NatGas is Greener than Wind & Solar When Counting CO2 Footprint
Every now and again, we come across someone who is willing to risk their career by openly admitting the truth. This time that brave soul is Russell Johns, the George E. Trimble Chair in Energy and Mineral Sciences at the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State University. In a letter to the editor published in the student-run Penn State Daily Collegian, Johns points out that when considering the intense mining operations needed to harvest materials used in solar and wind technology, and the shipping associated with those materials, etc., solar and wind actually have a *bigger* carbon dioxide footprint than does using natural gas. In other words, natural gas is greener than wind and solar!
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It grieves us to write this, but New York State and its uber-leftist, very destructive Governor, Kathy Hochul, is running rings around Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia with respect to attracting one of four $2 billion hydrogen hubs. Hochul has just orchestrated adding two more states to what is now a six-state coalition aimed at grabbing the hub. In addition to six northeastern states, the NY coalition boasts the participation of 14 private sector industry leaders, 12 utilities, 20 hydrogen technology original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), ten universities, seven non-profits, two transportation companies, and three state agencies. There are over 60 partners cooperating to lay the groundwork for attracting the hydrogen hub to New York State.
Looks like $2 billion is just too much of a temptation for Shell, Equinor (formerly known as Statoil), and U.S. Steel to resist. Those three companies have been a part of a joint effort with EQT, Williams, Southwestern Energy, and a few other companies in a group called Appalachian Energy Future (AEF), which was supposed to be the “one ring to rule them all” group aimed at enticing a hydrogen hub to one of the three Marcellus/Utica states (see 
The 
In early February, MDN told you about an industry-led group collaborating to attract one of four $2 billion hydrogen hubs to the Marcellus/Utica region provided for in the so-called Biden infrastructure bill (see 
PublicSource, a leftist, partisan “news” organization based in Pittsburgh, has published a surprisingly helpful and informative article on Pennsylvania’s efforts to attract one of the four $2 billion hydrogen hubs provided for in Biden’s so-called infrastructure bill. The article outlines what a hydrogen hub is (and is not), and how it connects to the state’s Marcellus industry. Most of the article is free of leftist dribble (although some bias and misinformation does creep in). For the most part, this is a good primer and backgrounder on hydrogen energy.
In addition to issuing its second quarter update yesterday, Williams made a second announcement of interest. The company has invested an unspecified amount of money in Aurora Hydrogen, a company developing technology that converts natural gas to hydrogen with zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Several other companies, including Chevron and Shell, invested too.
Some on the left (not all) get starry-eyed about the potential future of using hydrogen as the world’s key energy source. They believe hydrogen can and should replace both oil and natural gas. Hydrogen as a fuel source got off on a bad foot with the 
In April MDN told you about a world first when the gas-fired power plant (currently powered by Utica Shale gas) on the banks of the Ohio River in Hannibal (Monroe County), OH, successfully added a 5% mixture of hydrogen to the natural gas it burns (see 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia are all scrambling to form working groups or other alliances in an attempt to be THE state chosen for one of four regional hydrogen hubs funded by the so-called Biden infrastructure bill (see