The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) is providing up to $644,000 in funding to the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources for research into the state’s economic reliance on fossil fuel production and the implementation of hydrogen technology.
The study, which will include input from tribal nations and historically marginalized communities, assists Wyoming’s recent energy strategy and FECM’s long-term goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 as outlined by the Biden-Harris Administration, a Dec. 17, 2021 DOE press release said.
“Power and industrial sectors are some of the largest sources of carbon emissions today, and DOE investments like this one support the important role of clean hydrogen in decarbonizing these sectors,” Acting Assistant Secretary of FECM Dr. Jennifer Wilcox said in the release.
Wyoming is one of the most coal-dependant states in the U.S., relying on its export for a majority of its economic success, the release said. The Wyoming Energy Strategy aims to transform the state into a clean energy economy by transitioning its workforce to clean energy employment, supporting the state as a top destination for energy research and development, and capitalizing on emerging opportunities in hydrogen, geothermal and rare earth elements, the Wyoming Energy Strategy website said.
“The research activities conducted under this study will support the Wyoming Energy Strategy by mobilizing a whole-of-government effort to reduce climate pollution in every sector of the State’s economy, including addressing Wyoming’s energy exports to neighboring states,” the release said. “The study will also inform a Center of Excellence that could help to accelerate the commercialization of clean hydrogen technologies in these and other states, facilitating the exchange of best practices to advance a net-zero carbon economy.”
The FECM funds are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of reducing the country’s carbon emissions while supporting workers and communities that rely on fossil fuels for income, an April 2021 report by the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization said.
“We’re never going to forget the men and women who dug the coal and built the nation,” Biden said in the report. “We’re going to do right by them and make sure they have opportunities to keep building the nation in their own communities and getting paid well for it.”
