H2Go: How experts, industry leaders say US hydrogen is fuel for the future of agriculture, energy, security
As the Trump administration pursues an “all of the above” energy strategy, hydrogen experts welcome the new attention and are advancing efforts to make it a top, domestically-produced power source.
The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, one of seven “hubs” nationwide, partners with tribal, public and private concerns to build hydrogen production projects throughout their region.
“Hydrogen has a lot of dexterity as a molecule, and it can be used for a host of different things,” PNWHA president Chris Green told Fox News Digital.
Hydrogen can be a power source, but it more so is utilized as an energy carrier due to its periodic makeup.
“It is a carrier of electrons and can store energy in that regard. But as a fuel, it’s just like any other fuel. It can be used to propel machinery, equipment and industrial processes, those kinds of things. And so it’s another sort of energy commodity product that we can make here at home domestically,” Green said.
Hydrogen also has a dual role in agriculture, he said.
Fertilizer – of which much has been historically imported from now-war-torn Russia and Ukraine – is hydrogenic in makeup. Ammonium nitrate – a key ingredient – is hydrogen sourced. If the U.S. can bolster its hydrogen production, it can rely less on unreliable or adversarial economies, especially amid new tariffs.
And its power-sourcing and energy-carrying nature can power equipment, mills and more.
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With all of these important uses, Green said the U.S. has a chance to “leap ahead of everybody else if we can build out all this infrastructure.”
Beginning in the aughts, there had been talk of hydrogen-powered vehicles. But the extremely flammable nature of hydrogen has kept it from being a ubiquitous fuel source like petrol.
One company investing big in hydrogen, particularly in the West, is Chevron. The company said hydrogen may appeal to those worried about the energy sector’s environmental footprint.
The Texas-based energy giant is “leveraging [its] strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy in a growing world,” according to a statement.
“Hydrogen can play a key role in delivering large-scale lower-carbon solutions especially where electrification of demand is not feasible,” the statement said, adding it is confident hydrogen’s prominence will grow in the near-term.
Hydrogen is also used in processed foods, metallurgy and other areas.
In Utah, Chevron entered into a venture with Mitsubishi called ACES Delta or “Advanced Clean Energy Storage [of] Delta [UT].”
By harnessing the naturally protective state of an enormous subterranean salt cavern, the ACES Delta project currently under construction aims to produce up to 110 tons of hydrogen daily and store it at “utility scale” in the environmentally safe confines of the cavern.
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Chevron expects the ACES Delta project to provide “delivery-scale” amounts to the Intermountain Power Agency – also based in the Beehive State – in the near term.
The company also boasted of the accessibility of the hub – which is located along U.S. 50, a highway that cuts a 3,000-mile swath through the center of the country from Sacramento, California, to Washington, D.C., and on to Ocean City, Maryland.
That hub also has the regional potential to power the world’s fifth-largest economy: California, which has otherwise driven out most fossil fuel refiners and producers.
In his interview, Green also noted the demand for cleaner-burning jet-fuel alternatives and suggested that rather than replacing oil, it is a greener complement to sweet crude.
“Sometimes, don’t think about hydrogen as replacing a bunch of other things as much as we think about it complementing and then nurturing or supporting or boosting some of these existing supply chains,” he said.
“[I]f you produce a lot of it, then you’ve got optionality to support a host of different industry verticals that could benefit from it.”
Hydrogen has earned rare bipartisan support, bridging a divide where the right typically resists renewables like wind and solar, and the left often opposes “Big Oil.”
“Central Washington is leading the way in the all-of-the-above approach needed to achieve American energy dominance,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.
“I am working with the Trump administration to ensure we protect the domestic resources we are building here at home.”
Newhouse told Fox News Digital that PNWH2 has made “huge strides” in advancing technology toward safe and clean energy that decreases foreign reliance.
“Supporting the hub means new jobs, new investments, and stronger domestic supply chains that fall in line with the administration’s bold energy agenda,” Newhouse said.
On the left, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said in June that PNWH2 “is poised to play a leading role in growing America’s green hydrogen economy.”
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“Investments in hydrogen have the potential to reduce emissions from the most difficult to decarbonize sectors,” added Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, D-Ore.
“[W]hen done right, hydrogen can help us solve hard problems and decarbonize sectors of the economy.”
In terms of agriculture’s interest in a hydrogen future, the Washington State Potato Commission told Fox News Digital that as a cornerstone of the Evergreen State and others’ economies, agriculture drives innovation and growth.
“The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub will play a crucial role in securing a local hydrogen supply for fertilizer production, helping to mitigate supply chain disruptions and rising costs that challenge the industry,” an official said.
“Beyond fertilizer, hydrogen presents an opportunity to potentially fuel agricultural machinery, such as tractors and trucks. Washington’s potato farmers are committed to supporting hydrogen production in the Pacific Northwest, strengthening the future of agriculture in our region.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Energy Department for comment.