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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2024
Contact: Virginia Alvino Young, virginia@ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org, 714-267-1623
Hydrogen Hub’s First In-Person Event Met With Community Opposition
Residents to rally, continue thirteen months of resistance to fossil-fuel hydrogen development
Dunbar, WV — Despite the torrent of opposition from communities across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, federal officials continue their support of the Appalachian hydrogen hub, most recently issuing the first award from its $925 million allocation.
ARCH2 will primarily produce hydrogen from methane gas, despite the vast body of research associating oil and gas activities with myriad health harms, including cancer and respiratory issues.
What: Rally and press conference opposing the Appalachian hydrogen hub development.
Who: Residents from across WV, PA and OH will be joined by West Virginia State University students and members of Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, Moms Clean Air Force, Ohio Valley Environmental Advocates, People Concerned about Chemical Safety, People Over Petrochemicals Coalition, West Virginia Chapter – Sierra Club, West Virginia Citizen Action, West Virginia Rivers
When: Thursday, November 7. Rally begins at 5:30pm EST. Press conference begins at 5:45 pm EST.
Where: West Virginia State University’s Wilson University Union, 301 Washington Ave. Dunbar, WV 25064. The event will also be livestreamed.
“I refuse to let my beloved home state be sacrificed again for corporate profit,” said Morgan King of West Virginia Citizen Action Group. “We call on federal and state officials to prevent further poisoning of our air, water, and land to safeguard the health of our people. It’s time for our leaders to stop adding to the burden we face from decades of dirty industry and stop this hydrogen hub.”
Community members and organizations will rally in opposition to the hydrogen hub outside of ARCH2’s open house event at West Virginia State University this week, the only in-person engagement opportunity since the project was first approved in October 2023. ARCH2 has since encountered numerous setbacks, including scrapped projects, the loss of several developers, and an increasingly dismal market outlook. Critics of the hub have maintained that the network of projects is unlikely to reverse the pattern of job and population loss in the region associated with the natural gas industry.
“For those of us who have lived in this region for a long time, this narrative feels all too familiar. We’ve seen this story play out before — industries coming in with grand promises, only to leave us with little to show for it. The cycle of false hope and disappointment is one we can no longer afford,” said Eric Engle of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action. “It’s wrong for Appalachia, it’s wrong for working families, and it’s wrong for our environment.”
This demonstration follows more than a year of sustained opposition to the hydrogen hub. Earlier this year, federal officials held two listening sessions where all but two of the forty speakers opposed the proposal. In May, a petition was delivered to the Department of Energy on behalf of fifty-four organizations highlighting the lack of transparency and attention to health and safety issues and calling for the suspension of the hydrogen hub. Federal officials have since completed project negotiations and have begun to allocate funding to the hub.
“Many Appalachian families still lack basic information about the projects, including the locations of facilities, potential environmental impacts, and the communities being asked to shoulder this burden,” said A-Nya Badger of Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services. “Worse, federal officials have dismissed our many concerns and continue to advance this project despite knowing the harm it will bring to our communities. If these officials and company representatives were serious about engagement, they’d put a stop to this project instead of continuing with this box-checking exercise.”
This open house is one of only two hub-level events that will take place in West Virginia over the next three years but ARCH2’s poor planning decisions have ensured that the program will offer little value to concerned residents. ARCH2 chose to schedule its open house only two days after the 2024 general election, providing only three weeks’ notice and conflicting with a landmark WVDEP hearing on methane-emitting abandoned wells. Most project developers will not be in attendance and the hub’s advisory board has not been formed, robbing the public of the opportunity to engage directly with key hub stakeholders.
