On paper, West Virginia stands to benefit more than any other state from environmental cleanup investment under the federal infrastructure law that was passed in November.
It’s up to the state officials to make the most out of what is coming to them.
The Department of the Interior announced this month that West Virginia is eligible for $140.7million in abandoned mine land funding funding for fiscal 2022. This is more than any other state besides Pennsylvania. This sum is seven times greater than the amount West Virginia received through the traditional mine reclamation program for fiscal year 2021.
n The state could be eligible for up to $30.2million in additional funding in the first phase. This funding is the sixth-highest in the country. The state’s job losses from March 2020 to November 2021, the number and estimated cleanup cost of the orphaned wells, and the number of such wells were the factors that determined allocations.
n The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs ActRegional hydrogen production hubs are funded with $8 billion to increase industrial use of this energy source. The law gives the Appalachian Regional Commission the authority to finance a regional hydrogen production hub in Appalachia that is based on natural gas feedstock.
Tuesday’s rare joint announcement saw West Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and RepublicanShelleyMoore Capito, along with Republican congressmanDavid McCinley andGov. Jim Justice applauded the launch of a group to support a West Virginia candidate in developing a Department of Energy funded hydrogen hub.
Following the announcement of a new hydrogen hub-focused alliance earlier in the month, the group will add partners to the group and host an initial organizational meeting.
A group of seven national steel, plastics, and gas producers announced that they had formed to establish an industrial hydrogen hub in West Virginia and Ohio.
Environmentalists praised bipartisan infrastructure laws that allow for large-scale investments in cleaner energy, remediated mine lands, and wells. However, they said the law does not provide funding for acid mine drainage treatment. They also support an environmentally damaging approach to hydrogen production.
Eric Engle, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action President, stated that industrial hydrogen hub plans are a sham.
More than a dozen groups including Appalachian Citizens Law Center and Appalachian Voices, as well as the Ohio River Valley Institute, an advocate for clean energy, have released their information RecommendationsFor cleanup of abandoned mine lands, it was earlier in the month.
The groups stated that communities are excited about these historic investments in abandoned mining lands. We must make sure that these funds have the greatest economic and environmental impact on our hardest hit communities.
Clean up abandoned mine land
22 states and Navajo Nation have nearly $725 millions available to them to reclaim abandoned mining lands for fiscal 2022.
The goal is to create employment in coal communities by investing into closing dangerous mine shafts and reclaiming unstable slopes.
The federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement stated that the infrastructure law does NOT allow states to allocate a portion of their funding to set-aside accounts for acid mine drainage treatment costs.
Appalachian watershed cleanup advocates suggested that up to 30% be allocated annually from the infrastructure law to acid mine drainage set–aside accounts.
Manchin chairs Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and played an important role in the creation of infrastructure laws and abandoned mine land cleanup provisions.
Sam Runyon, Manchin’s spokeswoman, said that Senator Manchin is aware about these concerns and will continue working with his colleagues in order to ensure that every dollar from the bipartisan infrastructure bill gets spent as efficiently and effectively possible.
Coal community groups called for additional funding cuts from states and tribes whose annual compulsory abandoned mine land program funding exceeds the unfunded costs of priority site and water line replacement projects.
These groups cited a 2017 audit by the federal inspector general that found states were improperly using mine cleanup funds.
The AuditThe Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement was not ensuring that coal projects were prioritized in states, it was found. According to the audit, Montana, Texas, Wyoming were allowed to spend a portion of their annual abandoned mining land grant money on other projects, while hazardous coal projects remained unfunded.
We applaud Congress’s transformative investment and the Office of Surface Mining’s quick action to distribute funding to the states and tribal programs. This was stated by Chelsea Barnes, legislative director at Appalachian Voices.
Barnes said that the law will determine the impact of the money.
The infrastructure law allocates $11.29 million in funding for abandoned mine land cleanup over 15 years. This is likely not enough.
Tanya Trujillo from the Department of the Interior testified before the Manchins committee that cost rises, continual discovery of abandoned mine hazards and emergency circumstances make the one-time injection of funds insufficient in order to cover the entire inventory of work required.
Last year, the Ohio River Valley Institute estimated that abandoned mine land damage would cost between $18.3 billion and $24.4 billion. This estimate was as of 2020.
Joe Pizarchik, former Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement director, and other mine cleanup advocates believe states should plan now to hire staff and design projects in order to solicit bids earlier.
Terry Fletcher, spokesperson of the State Department of Environmental Protection said that the agency is looking for vacant positions and evaluating the possibility of additional staff to manage the funding influx.
Fletcher reported that the DEPs Division of Land Restoration (which houses the offices of Abandoned Mining Lands, Special Reclamation and Environmental Remediation) had 134 of its positions filled as of Nov. 1. There were 18 vacancies.
Nearly one fifth of the Abandoned Mine Lands Office positions were vacant. There were 52 filled jobs and 12 vacant.
Fletcher stated that Fletcher is currently exploring options for expanding the use of the private sector in reclamation activities.
Remediation of orphaned wells
The infrastructure law allows states up to $25 million in grants to start cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells. The application deadline is May 15.
States must act quickly to receive initial grants. They must use at minimum 90% of requested funding within 90 days to issue new contracts, amend existing contract or issue grants for plugging or reclamation work. States must repay any funds they have not obligated within a year.
Scott Mandirola, DEP Deputy Secretary, said that the agency would apply separately for a grant to plug orphaned wells in accordance with the infrastructure law.
States will receive an additional $1.5 billion in performance grants. To be eligible, states must document the steps they have taken to address orphaned water wells in the past 10 years. These include increasing state spending on well plugging and improving oil-gas well remediation.
Fletcher suggested that two laws passed in 2020 by the state Legislature might be eligible for regulatory improvements under the grant program. One is House Bill 4090The, which created an oil-and-gas abandoned well-plugging funds supported by a 2.5% tax on marginal oil wells. The other is House Bill 4091The, which established a $20,000 fee for expedited permits for an initial horizontal drill and an additional fee of $10,000 per horizontal drill on a single well pad, has also instituted an expedited permit fee fee of $10,000.
The DEPs Office of Oil and Gas monitors and regulates oil and natural gas drilling, storage and production. It also manages the state abandoned well-plugging and reclamation program.
The office is currently facing a critical staff shortage, which limits its oversight capacity.
Due to the oil and gas industry woes, permit fees, which are the office’s main revenue stream, the office has been left with a $1.3million shortfall.
According to agency officials in 2020, the office eliminated 14 of 39 positions. This resulted in a $1.1 million savings. The number of inspectors has declined from 17 to 9. To return to the previous staffing levels, the office will need $1.3 million annually. Safety advocates claim that they are already inadequate.
Senate Bill 480 will restore the offices inspector-to well ratio to about 4,000 to 1. It will impose a $100 annual oversight charge for unplugged wells producing 10,000 cubic feet or more gas per day. The Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee voted in favor of the bill and the Senate is now considering it.
The Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia voted against SB 480. They claimed that the fees would be too high.
The second consecutive session of legislative sessions has seen state legislators decline to take part. House Bill 2725This would increase funding for the Office of Oil and Gas by charging $100 per year to operators of unplugged wells that do not provide gas to landowners but are still free.
Fletcher responded to a question regarding whether the lack of staff at the Office of Oil and Gas would affect the DEPs ability effectively use funding under infrastructure law.
Fears and hopes for the Hydrogen Hub
Hydrogen is considered a key ingredient in the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The infrastructure law provides $9.5 billion for clean hydrocarbons, with $8 billion to finance at least four hydrogen plants in different parts of the country. Two must be located within the regions with the highest natural gas reserves.
EQT Corp. and Equinor, GE Gas Power and Marathon Petroleum, Mitsubishi Power and Shell Polymers announced earlier this month their intention to collaborate on a northern Appalachian region hub that would use carbon-capture technology to produce, transport, and use low-carbon hydrocarbon hydrogen.
Conrad Schneider (advocacy director at the Clean Air Task Force), a global advocacy organization for low-carbon energy, stated in a statement that the Appalachian hub “… can help achieve our goal to demonstrate effective regional hydrogen economies, and the production low-carbon hydrogen,”.
Rob Wingo (executive vice president of corporate Ventures at Pittsburgh-based EQT) stated that the region has a plentiful source of natural gas that he claims is low-cost and low-emissions-intensive. This can be converted to low carbon fuels.
EQT sees a significant chance to expand beyond the existing business. This advantage can be used to develop low-carbon fuel production. [carbon capture, use and storage]Wingo stated that there are opportunities.
The legislation is designed to accelerate the deployment of blue hydrogen. This has drawn criticism from clean energy advocates who point out that it is a dirty fuel that can cause more environmental harm than good.
Blue hydrogen is mainly formed by the conversion of methane to hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Researchers from Stanford and Cornell Universities found that the aforementioned were useful for their research. StudyLast year’s publication showed that the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the production blue hydrogen are quite high, particularly due to leaked Methane.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Methane can cause a 100-year increase in global warming of 28 to 36 percent compared to carbon dioxide.
The greenhouse gas footprint for blue hydrogen was more than double that of burning natural gas or coke for heat, and nearly 60% greater than that of burning diesel oil.
Critics warn that blue hydrogen may lead to society becoming dependent on fossil fuels and causing long-term greenhouse gas emissions. Engle called the idea “a fraud perpetrated upon the people of Ohio River Valley by same actors who have spent many years trying to make this Valley another plastics- and petrochemicals hub as Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.”
Cancer Alley is a term that is commonly used to describe an industrial area of 150 oil refineries, chemical facilities, and plastics plants. It is located along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge (Louisiana) and New Orleans.
Sean OLeary, Ohio River Valley Institute senior research scientist, predicted that the northern Appalachian hydrogen center would rely on carbon-capture and hydrogen technologies. This would significantly increase the price of electricity from coal- and natural gas fired power plants.
OLeary cited a report that his think tank published last spring, showing that natural gas-producing West Virginia and Ohio counties experienced minimal job growth from 2008 to 2019, compared to other counties in these states.
The Clean Air Task Force published a report last year indicating that blue hydrogen can reduce emissions quickly in near-term. The nonprofit and other analysts agree that green hydrogen from electrolysis could be a more long-term viable energy source if it costs less.
Electrolysis is a process where water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen by an electric current. If electricity is generated from renewable resources, the hydrogen produced is called “green”.
Australian researchers found that emissions from fossil fuel-based hydrogen system are substantial, even with carbon capture & storage. They found that electrolysis using renewable energy could be more affordable than fossil fuels containing carbon capture and storage.
However, of the $9.5B the infrastructure law has set aside for hydrogen hubs and hydrogen stations, only $1B is available for a clean hydrogen electrolysis programme to reduce the costs of hydrogen made from clean electricity.
According to the northern Appalachian hydrogen hub, its members will be working on plans for regional carbon storage and hydrogen capture in the coming weeks.
The West Virginia Legislature worked to accommodate carbon capture in this legislative session. Bills setting up a regulatory program underground carbon storage were advanced through both the House of Delegates as well as the Senate.
CCS is something that I am a big fan. Sen. Mike Caputo, D.Marion, spoke out about carbon capture and stockpiling during Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. This is the only way that coal can survive in this age and age.
Help is available if needed
Monday’s presentation by Brian J. Anderson, Director of National Energy Technology Laboratory, covered the federal funding opportunities and infrastructure laws. The new state legislative committee was established to make policy recommendations for West Virginia’s coal communities.
Anderson, a West Virginia University graduate and Mountain State native called attention to the House Select Coalfield Communities Committees website powered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory listing funding opportunities for energy communities.
The website energycommunities.govThrough a federal work group, which was created to rebuild communities after the closure of power plants and coal mines,, the federal government is geared towards coal and power plant communities.
The website lists 14 grants for environmental cleanup through the infrastructure law, which applies to state and local governments, educational institutions and nonprofits, as well as the private sector. Five grants do not require matching funds.
Finance and Coalfield Communities committees have voted in approvalHouse Bill 4479In response to a common complaint by communities that they were not receiving grants because they couldn’t write grants or provide money for them, a nine-member Coalfield Communities Grant Facilitation Commission was established.
Energy communities are not eligible for any of the grants. Many grant applicants have listed the estimated dates for application as the second half 2022 or TBD.
If the state can handle it, help will be provided.
Ward said last month that the Senate Finance Committee would receive funding five to six times more than he agency had ever received.
Ward said that to get these funds out the door, we’ll have to be on top.