In October, the Biden administration announced it was using money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create seven hydrogen hubs across the country. The closest one to Arizonans will be in California.
Their goal is to increase the domestic production of hydrogen, as part of the transition to a cleaner energy economy. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has referred to clean hydrogen as the "Swiss army knife of zero carbon solutions," because, she says, of its many uses — from fuel for trucks and airplanes to heating homes.
This fall, Valley-based Nikola Motors announced the commercial launch of an electric semi-truck using a hydrogen fuel cell battery. The company says it has hundreds of orders for the trucks, which it says will have a range of up to 500 miles, and will take around 20 minutes to refuel.
Julie McNamara has some questions about how these hydrogen hubs will all work, and what the end results will be. McNamara is the deputy policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
She joined The Show to talk about it more.
