Photo courtesy: Photo credit: WV Chamber of Commerce
US Senator Joe Manchin said the Cut Inflation Act tax credit could help states secure regional hydrogen hubs.
White Sulfur Springs – Two US senators from West Virginia have vowed to continue working together, even as they disagree on whether the Inflation Reduction Act will help or hurt West Virginia.
US Senators Joe Manchin and Sherrie Moore Capito told attendees at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s 86th Annual Meeting and Business Summit in Greenbrier on Thursday.
Capito, RW.Va., said he remains concerned about the $737 billion inflation cut bill written by Manchin and signed into law by President Joe Biden last month.
“I am very concerned about the direction this bill will take us in. I have communicated this to Senator Manchin,” Capito said. “People say, ‘Are you going to be able to work with Senator Manchin again?’ We were together. Everything that happens in West Virginia is, and will always be, of paramount importance to us.”
The Inflation Reduction Act includes spending $437 billion on new investments in clean energy, climate change mitigation, healthcare and prescription drug pricing reforms, and funding drought resilience in the West. . Also included is his $300 billion to reduce the national deficit.
The IRA imposes a 15% minimum corporate tax on book revenues of $1 billion or more that companies report to investors in their financial statements, a 1% fee on share buybacks by companies, savings from prescription drug pricing reforms, and employment savings. Partially funded by funds. 86,000 additional IRS personnel.
Manchin, DW.Va., argues from Republicans, including Capito, and other groups that support the Inflation Reduction Act that the new law will have only a modest impact on inflation, increasing the burden on businesses and putting pressure on the fossil fuel industry. It was accused of causing damage. Lift the emerging green energy industry.
“From a political point of view, they say, ‘Why did you do that, Joe?'” I didn’t look at it politically, I looked at it for the opportunity “This bill will do more to transform the next decade. It gives us a path to fully secure energy in
“We can’t keep fueling the inflationary fires we see in this country,” Capito said. “The government and others have passed yet another bill to put hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. It will bring you your business.”
Mr. Manchin spoke of the need for a hydrogen hub in West Virginia that will harness West Virginia’s abundant natural gas resources to create a clean source of energy for manufacturing and automobiles.
“I make a prediction: we will have a hydrogen hub in West Virginia because we are sitting in an ocean of energy. And that means everything from a transition standpoint,” Manchin said. rice field.
“We have the resources to make the energy completely independent,” Manchin continued. “We have the resources of the United States to not only help ourselves, but to help our allies without relying on foreign supply chains. Without security, we cannot maintain our status as a superpower.”
Manchin, Capito, District 1 Rep. David McKinley, and RW.Va. formed the West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Working Group in February. Gov. Jim Justice, Senate Speaker Craig Blair, R-Berkeley. Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay. Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier. House Minority Leaders Doug Skaff and D-Kanowa have been added to the working group.
Manchin, Capito and McKinley are backers of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment and jobs law that helped pass it last year, including funding hydrogen hub projects, and Justice backed the bill was a person Federal projects are funded with his $9.5 billion from the Hard Infrastructure Bill, including his $8 billion for the Regional Hydrogen Hub Program.
Each hub must demonstrate clean hydrogen production and demonstrate clean hydrogen use. At least the legislator could insert specific language that he should have one hub in the Appalachian region. A proposal for a regional hydrogen hub in West Virginia was submitted to the US Department of Energy in March.
West Virginia’s proposal would most likely be a gray hydrogen process in which hydrogen is extracted from natural gas and the emissions are released into the atmosphere. Or the blue hydrogen process, which also uses natural gas, but through the capture, utilization and storage of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gases are captured and pumped underground. The IRA also includes hydrogen tax credits and increased credits to encourage research and construction of CCUS facilities.
Capito, who helped Biden’s early 2021 negotiations with the White House lead to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed last November, said the law and what it means for West Virginia. Proud. The state is expected to receive more than $6 billion over the next five to 10 years.
“I’m the one who actually started with President Biden,” Capito said. “I told a story here last year about how we’ve been honing here what I think is a big win for West Virginia. We’re already doing roads, wastewater, well capping, broadband expansion. , we’re seeing expansion into airports, we’re modernizing infrastructure that we’ve long abandoned, and that’s great, all West Virginians are proud of our continued commitment to improving our infrastructure. should think.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $100 million for broadband expansion in West Virginia. That’s more than $1 billion the state has for various broadband expansion projects through the United States Department of Agriculture, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund programs.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced in June that West Virginia was one of four states approved for broadband expansion projects through the $1.2 trillion U.S. Relief Plan Act’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund.
“We’re going to get there … there are so many great and innovative solutions out there,” says Capito. “I need to get the mapping right so that I don’t overbuild in my neighborhood and other places where I have great service.
.
Comments
Post a Comment