Review - S 646 Introduced – Hydrogen Technologies

Earlier this month, Sen Coons (D,DE) introduced S 646, the Hydrogen for Industry Act of 2023. The bill would require DOE to establish the ‘Hydrogen Technologies for Heavy Industry Demonstration Program’ to provide grants or cooperative agreements to demonstrate industrial end-use applications of hydrogen. The bill would authorize $1.2 billion for the period of fiscal years 2024 through 2028.

Moving Forward

While Coons is not a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, three of his cosponsors {Sen Hickenlooper (D,CO), Sen Cassidy (R,LA), Sen Heinrich (D,NM)} are members. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered by the Committee. Beyond the cost of the program, I see nothing that would engender any organized opposition to this bill. I suspect that the bill would receive some level of bipartisan support if ways could be found to fund this new grant program.

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-646-introduced - subscription required.