Review - HR 6872 Introduced – Hydrogen Port for Ports Act

Last month, Rep Porter (D,CA) introduced HR 6872, the Hydrogen for Ports Act. The bill would require DOE to “establish a grant program to support hydrogen-fueled equipment at ports”. It would also require DOT and DHS to conduct a study on “the feasibility and safety of using hydrogen-derived fuels, including ammonia, as a shipping fuel.” The bill would authorize $100 million in appropriations per year through 2028 to fund the grant program.

This bill is very similar to S 647 (removed from paywall) that was introduced last March. No actions have been taken on that bill beyond assigning it to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for consideration.

Moving Forward

While Porter is not a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, her sole cosponsor {Rep Bilirakis (R,FL)}. This means that there may be sufficient influence for the bill to be considered in Committee. The fact that this is an alternative fuel bill and includes $100 million in new spending will draw significant opposition from Republicans. This means that the bill is unlikely to move forward.

Commentary

With both anhydrous ammonia and hydrogen fuels being potential targets of terrorist attack, probably a higher risk than the conventional fuels they are designed to replace, security measures are going to have to be put into place to protect the storage and transfer of these fuels. This grant program should specifically include spending for those security measures as allowable uses for the grant funds. I would revise §2(b)(1) to read:

“(1) the purchase, installation, construction, facilitation, maintenance, operation of, or providing physical or cybersecurity for, as appropriate—"

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill, and its differences from the S 647, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-6872-introduced - subscription required.