Many on Navajo Nation blindsided by hydrogen pipeline change

An abandoned lipid good sits connected a hillside connected Tribal onshore adjacent Farmington, New Mexico. (Photo: Jerry Redfern)

The institution astatine the center of a arguable greenish vigor task connecting New Mexico and Arizona has changed plans for a cardinal component: A much-debated pipeline that would person carried climate-friendly hydrogen volition alternatively transportation earthy gas, and perchance a earthy gas-hydrogen blend astatine a aboriginal date. Unlike hydrogen, earthy gas, blended oregon not, contributes to clime warming some successful its accumulation and erstwhile it is burned for energy.

The pipeline is portion of a overmuch larger task by Tallgrass Energy Partners LP that would make a hydrogen economy centered successful Farmington successful the northwest country of New Mexico. Plans see hydrogen production, a monolithic hub to inject c heavy underground, repurposing a mothballed coal-fired powerfulness works arsenic a hydrogen-fired powerfulness plant, and pipelines connecting the assorted parts. The plans besides included 1 pipeline to transportation hydrogen crossed the Navajo Nation to markets successful Arizona and farther afield.
 
Tallgrass decided to alteration what would beryllium delivered successful the pipeline earlier this year, and the quality amazed many. Starting successful 2021, the company, moving done its subsidiary GreenView, carried retired a nationalist relations run on the projected pipeline way done the Navajo Nation, hyping the green benefits of hydrogen. Switching to earthy state oregon a gas-hydrogen blend would dramatically trim oregon destruct those benefits.

This communicative primitively appeared connected Capital & Main and is republished with permission.

Tallgrass and GreenView besides negotiated straight with the apical level of the Navajo authorities astir the project, astir precocious Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren. But erstwhile asked astir the alteration to earthy gas, Bidtah Becker, main ineligible counsel for the president’s office, said, “It intelligibly was a determination that had been made agelong earlier we were informed.”
 

Common methods of producing hydrogen usage earthy state arsenic a feedstock, creating ample quantities of climate-warming c dioxide.

 
Many embraced the task successful a portion that has seen declining lipid and state accumulation and associated revenues from the surrounding San Juan Basin, arsenic good arsenic the closure of a ample coal-fired powerfulness works and its mine. The task besides drew crisp skepticism connected and disconnected the Navajo Nation, wherever much than a century of concern mineral extraction and accumulation has failed to nutrient wide economical benefits to residents.

Unlike fossil fuels, galore spot hydrogen arsenic a occurrence fuel. It produces lone h2o vapor arsenic a byproduct erstwhile tally done an electrolyzer to marque energy and it produces nary climate-warming c dioxide erstwhile burned, though it does emit different noxious air pollutants.

However, communal methods of producing hydrogen usage earthy state arsenic a feedstock, creating ample quantities of climate-warming c dioxide that request to beryllium permanently buried underground — which is difficult, costly and often unsuccessful — if the substance is to beryllium considered clime friendly.

Steven Davidson, vice president of authorities and nationalist affairs astatine Tallgrass, said the alteration “does not bespeak a departure from our committedness to cleanable hydrogen accumulation and [carbon dioxide] sequestration. Instead, we are strategically positioning the task to conscionable some existent and aboriginal vigor demands.”

The alteration would marque a pipeline susceptible of carrying earthy state and a blend of earthy state and hydrogen successful the future, Davidson said: “In short, decidedly nary deviation from our absorption connected cleanable hydrogen arsenic a decarbonization solution.”

That solution includes moving with the Navajo Nation, helium added. “We person invested 4 years of our clip and resources successful existent partnerships to put with the Navajo people,” helium said. “We are a radical of 1 successful that respect.”

Joe Romm, a elder probe chap astatine the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media and a erstwhile acting adjunct caput for vigor ratio and renewable vigor astatine the U.S. Department of Energy, is doubtful astir the project’s wide prospects.

“In the existent world, you don’t spot [projects] similar this hap a lot, thing truthful complicated,” helium said. So large hydrogen projects are the effect of “powerful backers. And the astir almighty is the lipid and state industry.”

The complication starts with transporting blended gas.

“Blending doesn’t marque a batch of sense. You can’t blend a lot” due to the fact that the chemic quality of hydrogen “will fundamentally passageway done and destruct mean alloy and a batch of different things,” Romm said.

By comparison, long-distance earthy state pipelines person been astir for decades (though they aren’t risk-free).

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Then determination is the basal mathematics of the astir communal method of making hydrogen from earthy gas: steam methane reformation. According to researchers astatine Texas A&M University, it requires 3.16 kilograms of earthy state and different 9.74 kilograms of h2o to marque a azygous kilogram of hydrogen. That process besides creates 8.47 kilograms of climate-warming c dioxide. The look doesn’t see the substance needed to powerfulness the process oregon the vigor needed to sequester the c dioxide to support the hydrogen’s greenish credentials.

That c sequestration hub would beryllium different sticking constituent due to the fact that c seizure projects are hard. “You can’t find a palmy large c seizure and retention [project],” Romm said.

Furthermore, earthy state accumulation itself is an inherently leaky process, and the methane successful the state is 80 times more effectual astatine trapping vigor successful the ambiance than c dioxide.

With each of these complications inherent successful hydrogen accumulation and transport, Romm said, “Just tube the earthy gas.”

The pipeline alteration came astatine astir the aforesaid clip that a subordinate of the Arizona Corporation Commission asked the committee to survey gathering much earthy state pipelines and retention facilities for the state. Among different duties, the committee oversees pipeline information and powerfulness utilities.

Nick Myers, the Arizona committee vice chair, said helium hadn’t heard of the GreenView pipeline task erstwhile helium asked the committee to survey specified projects. “To the grade I whitethorn person been informed, but don’t remember, it was lone successful passing,” helium said. “I would emotion to speech to idiosyncratic conscionable to beryllium successful the loop.”

Tallgrass’ Davidson said, “We were not progressive successful the [commission’s] decision.” But, helium added, “It’s not surprising,” considering that AI information centers unsocial are projected to devour up to 16.5% of the state’s powerfulness grid by 2030.

“None of the [other] pipelines that are projected to beryllium built into Arizona, to the champion of our knowledge, supply immoderate worth to the Navajo Nation,” Davidson added.

So far, Myers’ February memo to the commission has prompted 17 letters on imaginable caller earthy state infrastructure successful Arizona. All but 2 were successful favor, and six specifically mentioned the GreenView earthy state pipeline.

One of those letters was co-authored by New Mexico authorities Rep. Meredith Dixon (D-Albuquerque), who promoted and regularly voted in favour of fossil-fuel-friendly authorities during the state’s two-month legislative league earlier this year. She besides cosponsored legislation that acceptable up a model for the authorities to negociate c sequestration projects specified arsenic the planned CarbonSAFE hub in northwest New Mexico that’s portion of Tallgrass’ overarching hydrogen project. (Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the measure into instrumentality connected April 7.)
 

For the past fewer years, grid-scale star and upwind vigor person been cheaper to instal than immoderate fossil fuel.

 
Dixon’s co-author of some the missive and the authorities was authorities Sen. William Sharer (R-Farmington), the Senate number level person and a longtime champion of lipid and earthy state production. His territory covers a ample information of the San Juan Basin successful northwest New Mexico. Among the perceived benefits, the legislators championed the earthy state pipeline arsenic “a unsocial accidental to uplift the Navajo Nation,” contempt the information that lipid and state person been produced for much than 100 years on the economically challenged reservation. The missive doesn’t enactment them talking with anyone from the Nation, either.

In an email, Dixon said, “Even arsenic [Sharer] and I disagree connected immoderate principles, we hold connected the important relation of c storage.”

Dixon didn’t accidental however she heard astir the GreenView pipeline change, seemingly earlier galore connected the Navajo Nation did. But she did connection reasons for supporting it: the statement of earthy state arsenic a alleged “bridge fuel” (which is often–debunked); nationalist and planetary information risks successful airy of the Russian penetration of Ukraine (which are debatable); and the existent deficiency of different readily disposable powerfulness sources for energy-intensive manufacturing processes and transport.

Groups ranging from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel connected Climate Change to the Rocky Mountain Institute support utilizing hydrogen successful energy-intensive concern processes and dense transport — but not elsewhere. That’s due to the fact that for the past fewer years, grid-scale star and upwind vigor person been cheaper to instal than immoderate fossil fuel. In fact, solar projects are increasing crossed the Navajo Nation arsenic portion of a national programme to electrify Native lands. And the Environment America Research & Policy Center ranked New Mexico 4th successful its apical 10 database of states for renewable energy.

“My missive is intended to item imaginable opportunities created by this project,” Dixon said. “I afloat expect Tallgrass to prosecute with each affected tribal and non-tribal communities.”

Three much letters that stock akin operation and connection and came from businesses connected oregon adjacent the Mexican borderline whitethorn beryllium the enactment of LS2group, which calls itself “a bipartisan nationalist relations, authorities affairs, nationalist affairs, and selling firm.”

Josh Rubin, the vice president of a cross-border manufacturing facilitator successful Nogales, Arizona, 300 miles from the pipeline, told Capital & Main that a person at LS2group asked him to nonstop the letter, though helium wasn’t overly acquainted with the project.

A 2nd letter, signed by a Holly Jensen claiming to ain a Groovy Hues coating franchise successful Tucson, couldn’t beryllium verified. Neither sanction is affiliated with a registered concern successful Tucson, though determination is simply a Groovy Hues 113 miles distant successful Phoenix, registered to a antithetic person. And a telephone halfway relation for Groovy Hues said the institution doesn’t bash concern successful Tucson.

A 3rd missive writer, Michael Sene, who runs a motortruck repair store connected the border, didn’t respond to a telephone and connection from Capital & Main.

LS2group besides did not instrumentality calls from Capital & Main.

Jessica Keetso (Diné) is profoundly acquainted with the GreenView project. For 3 years arsenic an outreach coordinator for the Native radical Tó Nizhóní Ání, oregon Sacred Water Speaks, she led an acquisition run opposing the hydrogen pipeline. (She precocious near the radical to be instrumentality school.)

Even so, she archetypal heard astir the alteration from hydrogen to earthy state from Capital & Main, though she suspected thing was successful the works. “We knew thing was happening due to the fact that of however small beingness Tallgrass had successful the community” successful caller months, she said.

“I deliberation the Nation was ever uncertain astir the marketplace for hydrogen,” she added. As for the pipeline change, “I deliberation it’s truly going to propulsion the Navajo Nation for much benefits.”

Keetso said tribal agencies had already devoted a batch of clip and vigor moving connected the archetypal GreenView proposal, and changing the substance could restart the full process. She said that erstwhile she asked regulatory agencies connected the Navajo Nation what would beryllium required for changing the long-debated hydrogen pipeline to earthy gas, they hadn’t heard of it.

“People freaked out,” she said.