Review - HR 4032 Introduced – Aviation Hydrogen Strategy

Last month, Rep Johnson (D,GA) introduced HR 4032, the Hydrogen Aviation Strategy Act. The bill would require the FAA and DOE to exercise leadership in the creation of Federal and international policies relating to the safe and efficient use of hydrogen to increase aviation decarbonization. It also addresses issues related to the certification of aircraft that use hydrogen as fuel. No funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Johnson is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill is assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. There will be some level of knee-jerk reaction to this bill by some Republicans that oppose any ‘green energy’ proposal, but I suspect that there may be some level of bipartisan support for the bill, especially since no funding is authorized. I am not sure if there would be enough support for the bill to move to the floor of the House under the suspension of the rules process. There would not be enough leadership support for this bill for it to be considered under regular order.

Commentary

While I understand why, this bill does not address any of the safety and security issues related to an advanced hydrogen economy that would affect the ability of DOT and DOE to advance the use of hydrogen as a fuel for aircraft. The crafters of this bill were trying to avoid the additional jurisdictional issues that would arise from efforts to address these supporting issues. But this is the classic legislative chicken or egg problem, without an active use for hydrogen as a fuel, there will be no hydrogen infrastructure in place. But, without an existing fuel infrastructure no one is going in invest the time an money needed to develop aircraft that would use hydrogen as a fuel. This is why, if the crafters really want to advance the hydrogen fuel economy, they will need to craft a comprehensive bill that address (and provides funding for) both the supply and use sides of the equation.

 

For more details about this legislation, including additional discussion of how to address the legislative issues identified above, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4032-introduced - subscription required.