What are the emerging contours of regional decarbonization? Insights from an exploratory analysis of US clean hydrogen hubs

IF 3.4 2区社会学 Q1 GEOGRAPHY

Geoforum Pub Date : 2025-05-22 DOI:10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104294

Michael Ewers , Christian Brannstrom , Caitlin Conrecode

{"title":"What are the emerging contours of regional decarbonization? Insights from an exploratory analysis of US clean hydrogen hubs","authors":"Michael Ewers , Christian Brannstrom , Caitlin Conrecode","doi":"10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104294","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Decarbonization is a critical challenge for reaching climate goals, especially for hard-to-abate manufacturing, heavy transport, and power generation sectors. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has promoted hydrogen as a key solution, exemplified by an $8 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub Program (H2H) launched in 2022. We use an analytical framework inspired by recent work in economic geography to evaluate emerging space-making processes in the 22 H2H “finalists” by focusing on processes and relationships in value chains, regional formations, and agentic features. The results illustrate two main findings. First, the state’s role in (re)shaping regions and regional energy transitions reinforces existing regional diversity variation in industrial and resource geography, while imposing new social and community conditions to secure federal funding. Second, the competition has stimulated the growth and connection between new, multi-scalar actors, including novel lead organizations, bipartisan political supporters, and a continued role for oil and gas incumbents. Decarbonization efforts offer new sites for accumulation and incumbents and provide templates for inserting social justice dimensions. Looking to the future, we see the US Clean H2Hubs Program as a site for testing claims in regional-economic geography and comparative cases with hub- or cluster-based hydrogen initiatives in East Asia, the Gulf States, and Europe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12497,"journal":{"name":"Geoforum","volume":"163 ","pages":"Article 104294"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Geoforum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718525000946","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Decarbonization is a critical challenge for reaching climate goals, especially for hard-to-abate manufacturing, heavy transport, and power generation sectors. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has promoted hydrogen as a key solution, exemplified by an $8 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub Program (H2H) launched in 2022. We use an analytical framework inspired by recent work in economic geography to evaluate emerging space-making processes in the 22 H2H “finalists” by focusing on processes and relationships in value chains, regional formations, and agentic features. The results illustrate two main findings. First, the state’s role in (re)shaping regions and regional energy transitions reinforces existing regional diversity variation in industrial and resource geography, while imposing new social and community conditions to secure federal funding. Second, the competition has stimulated the growth and connection between new, multi-scalar actors, including novel lead organizations, bipartisan political supporters, and a continued role for oil and gas incumbents. Decarbonization efforts offer new sites for accumulation and incumbents and provide templates for inserting social justice dimensions. Looking to the future, we see the US Clean H2Hubs Program as a site for testing claims in regional-economic geography and comparative cases with hub- or cluster-based hydrogen initiatives in East Asia, the Gulf States, and Europe.

查看原文本刊更多论文

区域脱碳的新轮廓是什么？美国清洁氢枢纽探索性分析的见解

脱碳是实现气候目标的关键挑战，特别是对于难以减排的制造业、重型运输和发电行业。美国能源部（DOE）已将氢作为关键解决方案加以推广，2022年启动的80亿美元区域清洁氢中心计划（H2H）就是例证。我们使用了一个受经济地理学最新研究启发的分析框架，通过关注价值链中的过程和关系、区域形成和代理特征，评估了22个H2H“决赛选手”中新兴的空间制造过程。研究结果说明了两个主要发现。首先，国家在（重新）塑造区域和区域能源转型中的作用加强了工业和资源地理上现有的区域多样性差异，同时施加了新的社会和社区条件以确保联邦资金。其次，竞争刺激了新的、多尺度参与者之间的增长和联系，包括新的领导组织、两党政治支持者，以及石油和天然气现有企业的持续作用。脱碳努力为积累和在职者提供了新的场所，并为插入社会正义维度提供了模板。展望未来，我们认为美国清洁氢枢纽项目将成为一个测试区域经济地理主张的场所，并与东亚、海湾国家和欧洲的枢纽或集群型氢倡议进行比较。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Geoforum GEOGRAPHY-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

5.70%

发文量

201

期刊介绍： Geoforum is an international, inter-disciplinary journal, global in outlook, and integrative in approach. The broad focus of Geoforum is the organisation of economic, political, social and environmental systems through space and over time. Areas of study range from the analysis of the global political economy and environment, through national systems of regulation and governance, to urban and regional development, local economic and urban planning and resources management. The journal also includes a Critical Review section which features critical assessments of research in all the above areas.