Commish hear about hydrogen hub
Harrison News-Herald Reporter
CADIZ — The Harrison County Comisisoners met for their regular weekly meeting on Wednesday, July 12.
They began by approving purchase orders and vouchers for the County Home and the Department of Job and Family Services before moving on to appropriations for the recorder’s office and the County Home.
Commissioner Paul Coffland read the names of those being nominated to the Local Emergency Planning Committee. According to the EPA, “Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, Local or Tribal Emergency Planning Committees must develop an emergency response plan, review the plan at least annually, and provide information about chemicals in the community to citizens.”
The committee must consist of different representatives from around the county, including those from law enforcement, civil defense, healthcare, elected officials, and media. The county’s LEPC will include representatives, such as Hoepdale Fire Chief Mark Marchetta, Deputy Health Commissioner Katie Norris, and Sheriff Ron Myers.
At the end of the meeting, Nick Homrighausen gave a brief update on the Harrison County Community Improvement Corporation, with which the commissioners just recently entered into a cooperative agreement.
He began. “You’ve heard about the hydrogen hub, I think there’s been a couple meetings with a couple companies. I know they’ve been out talking with landowners and there’s been a lot of news around it lately. … We thank you for your support. Currently the Department of Energy is evaluating all the applications, but they’re being very tight-lipped about the process.”
He explained that the money for the project is DOE driven. He recently spoke with JobsOhio who said that they believe it will be almost winter before anything is heard on DOE decisions.
“The hydrogen hub makes a lot of sense with the robust industry we have within the tri-state region and the oil and gas potential of our region,” Homrighausen continued. “But it’s not going to be a physical hub. What we’re understanding is it will be a series of pipelines and entities spread throughout a very large area. Which means you’re going to have different pockets of pipelines and entities from maybe some of the larger metropolitan areas. … There’s going to be a lot of players involved in this. It’s a very complex, long-term project full of multiple projects that we’re still understanding as we get into this further. We obviously don’t know how it’s going to play out but, again, it’s going to be a long project to say the least.
“Barring any 100% driven, private investment, this will take decades,” he continued. “It will probably change along the way as new technology comes on board. There are plans for there to be multiple hydrogen hubs across the U.S., but we continue to work with companies that are evaluating our area and it’s highly data driven at this point.
“We are part of the Hydrogen Hub Coalition so we get regular updates and see whenever we need more support letters.”
Homrighausen and County CIC President Dave Wheeler set up a meeting with the commissioners to share some additional information.
