President Joe Biden’s Energy Department announced $6 billion for 33 projects in 20 states to combat those evil greenhouse gases and ozone layer killer carbons.
Six. Billion. Dollars. The projects sound great if the companies can pull it off.
But why are WE subsidizing the projects?! Make it stop.
The administration boasted that the money would support jobs. But not just any jobs. Good-paying union jobs.
It makes sense since the projects will “decarbonize energy-intensive industries, reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions…revitalize industrial communities, and strengthen the nation’s manufacturing competitiveness.”
“Spurring on the next generation of decarbonization technologies in key industries like steel, paper, concrete, and glass will keep America the most competitive nation on Earth,” stated U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Thanks to President Biden’s industrial strategy, DOE is making the largest investment in industrial decarbonization in the history of the United States. These investments will slash emissions from these difficult-to-decarbonize sectors and ensure American businesses and American workers remain at the forefront of the global economy.”
The *evil* industries Biden plans to save us from:
I see familiar companies around Houston.
The administration awarded ExxonMobil in Baytown, TX, $331.9 million for the Baytown Olefins Plant Carbon Reduction project. The DoE hopes the project will “enable the use of hydrogen in place of natural gas across high heat-fired equipment using new burner technologies for ethylene production” at the plant.
“The equipment modifications aim to enable the use of up to 95% clean hydrogen fuel,” according to the project description. “When fully implemented, the modifications would expect to avoid 2.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year—equal to more than 50% of the plant’s total emissions—and would reduce criteria air pollutants.”
The Dow Chemical Company’s Novel CO2 Utilization for Electric Vehicle Battery Chemical Production will get $95 million. It’s located on the Gulf Coast. I know one refinery is located in Houston.
Anyway, Dow wants to build a facility on the Gulf Coast that will “capture and utilize approximately 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year to produce essential components of electrolyte solutions needed for domestic lithium-ion batteries.”
I asked a chemical engineer about these two projects. He said the hydrogen project by ExxonMobile is legit. But that natural gas won’t just go away. ExxonMobile will likely sell it off to a company that will burn it up.
He is kind of iffy on the carbon dioxide project. It can work but doesn’t know if it would make a difference or become profitable. If it’s not profitable then why would a company continue the process?
So why are we subsidizing these projects? The chemical engineer told me these companies are trying something new. With all the money from the government, it’s likely the company won’t own the technology (I need to look that up to make sure), so it could be used elsewhere.
But then again, we all know they are forcing us to subsidize it to take away our freedom and choice. We all have to drive those electric vehicles in a few years!
Unilever gets $20.9 million to decarbonize ice cream manufacturing in Tennessee, Missouri, and Vermont. That includes Ben & Jerry’s:
The Decarbonization of Unilever Ice Cream Manufacturing project, led by Unilever, plans to replace natural gas boilers with electric boilers and industrial heat pumps using waste heat recovery across four ice cream manufacturing facilities in Tennessee, Missouri, and Vermont. This project would reduce emissions associated with the production of Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Klondike, Magnum, Popsicle, Talenti, and other packaged ice cream and frozen novelty products.
But I thought Unilever unloaded its ice cream division?
$170.9 million will go to Kraft Heinz for its Delicious Decarbonization Through Integrated Electrification and Energy Storage project.
The project occurs in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, New York, Minnesota, Iowa, and Virginia.
The project aims “to upgrade, electrify, and decarbonize its process heat at 10 facilities by applying a range of technologies including heat pumps, electric heaters, and electric boilers in combination with biogas boilers, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, and thermal energy storage.”
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