UNITED States President Joe Biden was set to announce seven new “hydrogen hubs” across the country today as part of efforts to boost the economy with green energy ahead of the 2024 election.

The 80-year-old Democrat was to travel to Philadelphia to unveil regions that won a bidding war for US$7 billion (RM33.1 billion) in funding to make the clean fuel, including a number in electoral battleground states.

The aim of the hubs was to produce nearly three million tonnes of clean hydrogen a year, amounting to one-third of the US production goal for 2030, and reduce emissions, the White House said.

Biden, who was neck and neck with his likely rival, Republican Donald Trump, made green energy a key part of his “Bidenomics” plan to revive the US industry and create jobs.

The White House said the plan would “create tens of thousands of high-quality jobs, strengthen the nation’s energy security and combat the climate crisis”.

The huge funding boost would fund large-scale hydrogen production, the pipelines to transport it, and help industries and businesses adapt to using the fuel.

The hubs are to be in California, Texas, the US east coast, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Appalachian mountain region in the northeast, the northern states of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Two of the states involved – Pennsylvania in the eastern region and Michigan in the Midwest – were crucial swing states in the 2020 election when Biden beat Trump, and were likely to be again next year.

The hydrogen hub was part of the president’s US$370 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which contained huge subsidies for clean energy tech and has left Europe worried US firms would outcompete European rivals.

Hydrogen is a source of renewable and storable energy.

Biden has pledged to increase production capacity for low- and zero-carbon emission sources, which are known as “blue” and “green” hydrogen.

Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas in which the carbon dioxide from the manufacturing process is captured. Green hydrogen is produced through renewable sources. – AFP, October 13, 2023.