Click here or the image above to watch Ranking Member Capito’s questions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in a full committee hearing on strengthening efforts to grow the economy and protect the environment through commonsense policy and American innovation.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON BENEFITS OF WEST VIRGINIA’S ARCH2 HYDROGEN HUB:

RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:

“In my opening statement I talked about ARCH2, the hydrogen hub, and how excited we are to have that coming to our region, particularly in my state. But each hub has selected different mixes of pathways for producing, and I think that was written into the bill. And so when it comes to buildout of our nation's hydrogen infrastructure, where do you think the initial demand will come from and what will the associated emissions benefits be?”

SHANNON ANGIELSKI, PRESIDENT OF THE CLEAN HYDROGEN FUTURE COALITION:

“The important attribute I would say about the hydrogen hubs generally is that they will enhance that sort of network effect that's needed by aggregating both the production, the transport, and use demand and enable that infrastructure to be shared and be lower cost at least initially as the industry grows. And one significant benefit of what the ARCH2 hub is looking at is that they have a variety of end use sectors that exist within the hub that can take advantage of it.” 

ON PROJECT DELAYS CAUSED BY PERMITTING CHALLENGES:

RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:

“I mentioned permitting and how there have been some bureaucratic headwinds to getting these projects approved. How concerned are you about the permitting process that we're seeing on the Class VI wells? And then there's the issue of permitting the transport of hydrogen as well.”

SHANNON ANGIELSKI, PRESIDENT OF THE CLEAN HYDROGEN FUTURE COALITION:

“As it relates to the Class VI permits, I mean, you mentioned in your opening remarks right there. I think there are almost 60 applications pending before EPA. One has a provisional permit out of the 60 and many of these applications were filed years ago…But it is a concern because obviously the longer is, you know, permitting takes that's the time value of money for project developers. And the same is true when we're talking about any infrastructure component of a project, including pipelines, as you mentioned. I think probably the biggest concern is with respect to siting of pipelines and the time it takes to site and that's a permitting issue. It's also a local landowner, and other, you know, regional or communities set of issues.”

Click HERE to watch Ranking Member Capito’s questions.

Click HERE to watch Ranking Member Capito’s opening statement.

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