Oregon’s first green hydrogen production project has been shelved after public pushback over potential environmental and health impacts.
NW Natural, the state’s largest natural gas provider, had proposed to the Oregon Public Utilities Commission in August a plan to create green hydrogen to blend into its natural gas. The company would have pumped the blended gas to 2,500 customers in west Eugene by early 2024.
It pitched the project as an experimental way to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and to hone production of green hydrogen, which is made when electricity powered from renewable sources is run through water to separate oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen is trapped and blended into the natural gas, which is primarily methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Environmental and social justice groups pushed back, saying the project had little emissions-reduction…