Biden's green hydrogen plan hits climate obstacle: Water shortage
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[July 03, 2023]
By Valerie Volcovici
(Reuters) - The Biden administration's climate agenda is facing an
unexpected challenge in drought-prone Corpus Christi, Texas, where a
proposed clean hydrogen hub would require the installation of
energy-intensive, expensive and potentially environmentally damaging
seawater desalination plants.
The Gulf Coast port is in the running for up to $1 billion available
under President Joe Biden's 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
to create a regional hub to produce hydrogen, a low-emissions fuel made
by electrolyzing water that can help decarbonize heavy-emitting
industries and transportation.
A hydrogen hub would require access to millions of gallons of water – a
challenge in Corpus Christi which is experiencing a multi-year drought.
While local officials say they can provide that water by constructing a
seawater desalination plant, environmental groups and some local
residents and lawmakers are lining up to oppose desalination sites.
"It makes no sense to create a purported clean energy source that in
turn destroys an entire ecosystem, threatens other economies reliant
upon a healthy bay system, and usurps the water supply for residents,"
the Coastal Alliance to Protect the Environment, a Corpus Christi
activist group, wrote in a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer
Granholm, shared with Reuters.
Reuters interviewed six researchers who study hydrogen as green power
and had exclusive access to an analysis by Rystad Energy consultancy
that showed that the Biden administration's vision of low-carbon
hydrogen may run into a challenge that is itself exacerbated by climate
change: water scarcity.
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Producing hydrogen requires enormous amounts of fresh water in a world
increasingly affected by climate-driven drought.
Nine of the 33 projects on the Department of Energy shortlist for the
hydrogen hubs are in highly water-stressed regions, according to Rystad
data.
Those locations include Southern California, Colorado, Kansas and New
Mexico as well as Texas. Globally, the picture is even worse, with more
than 70% of proposed green hydrogen projects located in water-stressed
regions like the Middle East.
"Most of the world's planned green hydrogen projects are to be located
in water-stressed regions," said Minh Khoi Le, renewable energy analyst
at Rystad, adding that this would create demand for more desalination
plants.
The Biden administration is offering companies up to $100 billion in tax
credits and regions up to $7 billion in grants to build out hydrogen
hubs to help reach a target of producing 50 million metric tons of clean
hydrogen fuel by 2050.
The DOE will announce the hubs in September.
The DOE declined to comment on the Corpus Christi or other hydrogen hub
applications, but pointed Reuters to the agency's funding announcement,
which "acknowledges that water consumption for H2Hubs could place
additional stress on regional water resources."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Assistant Administrator for
Water Radhika Fox told Reuters that "more water systems are considering
desalination as source water becomes scarcer and treatment technology
improves" but did not comment directly about Corpus Christi.
Peter Zanoni, the city manager for Corpus Christi, said the hydrogen
project, if approved, all but requires the adoption of seawater
desalination.
Even with around 100 million gallons of groundwater supply per day, the
city is experiencing drought conditions and limiting the use of
sprinklers and irrigation to once a week, according to its drought
contingency plan.
The city is contracted to supply up to 25 million gallons of water per
day to major industrial users ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia's Basic
Industries Corporation, Zanoni said, and anticipates hosting at least a
half dozen green hydrogen producers at the hub, each which would need
around 3 to 4 million gallons of fresh water per day.
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He said the city plans to add at least 70 million gallons of water per
day of capacity, including at least 30 million from the proposed
seawater desalination plant. "That drought-proof source is really
appealing to us," Zanoni said.
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![](../images/070323PIX/news_c7.jpg)
Harbor Island in Corpus Christi Bay is
seen in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, on December 19, 2018. Harbor
Island is one of five proposed sites for seawater desalination
facilities in Corpus Christi region. REUTERS/Collin Eaton/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/03/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_060123.png)
WATER WARS
While the United States has hundreds of desalination plants
scattered across the country to treat mildly brackish inland sources
of water, transforming ultra-salty ocean water into fresh water
carries higher risk, some water experts say.
Pumping the briny byproduct of desalination into Corpus Christi Bay
could cost the fishing industry around $6 million per year by
killing off seafood species like shrimp and Atlantic croaker,
according to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Paul Montagna, an
endowed chair at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico
Studies.
And seawater desalination plants are energy intensive and expensive
to build and maintain, energy experts say. The Poseidon plant near
San Diego, California - the largest seawater desalination plant in
the Western Hemisphere - cost over $1 billion to build and requires
nearly $275 million in upgrades to meet updated state rules to
protect marine life that can get sucked into the intake pipes or are
affected by the briny discharge from the plant.
In March, the EPA stepped in with a $170 million loan to offset the
price spikes for local consumers.
Corpus Christi first proposed seawater desalination in 2017 to
supply its rapidly growing energy and petrochemicals industries.
The city has struggled to secure federal environmental permits and
local support.
The EPA in January said it will not recognize a state-issued
pollutant discharge permit for one of the proposed desalination
plants on Harbor Island until Texas regulators conduct a more
thorough environmental impact review of groundwater use and
conservation efforts.
In a letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in
September, the EPA said it "continues to have concerns regarding
reporting and monitoring requirements for total dissolved solids,
chlorides, and sulfates."
In October, a local residents' association from the Hillcrest
neighborhood, a majority black area that is already home to
refineries, filed a Civil Rights Act complaint saying the proposed
Inner Harbor desalination plant would worsen pollution.
The city is seeking regulatory approval for three other desalination
sites.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jul/03/images/ads/current/businessdirectory_dailycover_2023.png)
Errol Summerlin, founder of local environmental group CAPE, said the
environmental costs of seawater desalination were too high, even if
it is in support of a low-carbon fuel.
"This plan would destroy an ecosystem to create an unproven solution
to the world's climate crisis," he told Reuters.
Brandon Marks, a regional campaigner for the Texas Campaign for the
Environment, said heavy industrial users, not residents, have the
most to gain from the proposed desalination plants.
A report released in November by consultancy Autocase Economic
Advisory said that over the last decade, nearly 70% of the increase
in water use in the Corpus Christi area came from industrial users
compared to just under 6% from households, commercial uses, fire
protection, public recreation, and sanitation.
"The whole reason they are pursuing this water is to enable
unfettered growth, which would not only harm the bay but harm
communities of the bay area," Marks said.
Charles Zahn, chairman of the Port of Corpus Christi and a major
proponent of desalination, said desalination plants could be a boon
for the region, even offering the opportunity to sell water to the
city of San Antonio, if there was a surplus.
"We need desalination to bring in industry that brings us jobs and
increases our tax base," he said. "I think water is probably the
number one issue in Texas and we have the ability to help Texas."
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and
Suzanne Goldenberg)
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