Texas
Texas hydrogen policy council begins work
Texas legislators last year tasked the Railroad Commission with establishing the Texas Hydrogen Production Policy Council to oversee development of the state’s hydrogen potential.
The agency announced this week it has selected 11 council members to serve alongside Railroad Commission Chairman Christi Craddick. The first meeting was held in mid-December.
“Hydrogen is blowing and going in Texas, to say the least,” Susan Shifflett, executive director of the Texas Hydrogen Alliance.
Speaking with the Reporter-Telegram by telephone, she noted that representatives of five of her association’s members – GTI Energy, Port of Corpus Christi, Chevron, CenterPoint Energy and Air Liquide – are on the council. The goal, she added, is to receive guidance on transporting, distributing and storing hydrogen.
Under the legislation, House Bill 2847, the council is tasked with making recommendations to the Legislature on updates necessary for the oversight and regulation of production, pipeline transportation, and storage of hydrogen. Duties will include developing a state plan for hydrogen production oversight by the commission, analyzing the development of hydrogen industries around the state, and monitoring regional efforts for the application and development of a clean hydrogen hub authorized under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Shifflett said the recent selection of the Houston region for a federal Gulf Coast hydrogen hub, with $1.2 billion in federal funding available is just the beginning of hydrogen development in Texas. Multinational majors like ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are looking at hydrogen and the effort is also attracting smaller companies and entrepreneurs.
Texas has a pipeline infrastructure that can carry hydrogen to Texas ports for export, she pointed out.
“I believe hydrogen will be the bridge between the energy of today and the energy of tomorrow,” she stated.
The Permian Basin has a role to play, she said. Not only is the region home to solar arrays and wind farms that can provide the energy needed to produce hydrogen, but oil and gas are sources of hydrogen, she noted.
“Everybody likes to use the term energy transition, but I prefer to use the terminology energy expansion,” she said.
And while there are different types of hydrogen – blue, green, brown – Shifflett said her alliance is all about growing hydrogen energy.
“There are so many applications for hydrogen,” she said.
She added her alliance plans to embark on education efforts, from rules and regulations regarding hydrogen production, transportation and storage to training first responders to safely respond to hydrogen-related incidents.
Newly-appointed council members are: Richard Fenza from Air Liquide, Preston Kurtz from Air Products & Chemicals, Nigel Jenvey from Baker Hughes, Keith Wall from CenterPoint Energy, Ian Lindsay from Chevron New Energies, Angie Murray from Enterprise Products, Scott Anderson from Environmental Defense Fund, Brian Weeks from GTI Energy, Jeffrey Pollack from Port of Corpus Christi Authority, Brian Korgel from the University of Texas and Kelsie Van Hoose from Williams Companies.