A bipartisan group of five U.S. Senators – Amy Kobuchar (D-Minn.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) – has sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm asking her to prioritize green ammonia for fertilizer and other uses when considering end-use diversity for the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs.
They noted that Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) with strong bipartisan support in November 2021. They said the Hubs are an integral component of that transformation.
“The production of ammonia for fertilizer is currently responsible for more than 1 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions,” noted the senators. “Green ammonia is one of the best tools we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it can immediately be fed into existing ammonia infrastructure and deployed on farms, even while additional uses of ammonia as a fuel are developed and deployed.
“A clean, stable, domestic source of ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizers is extremely important for America’s agriculture industry,” they added. “The current record-breaking fertilizer prices have been difficult for farmers and ranchers and bad for inflation. A Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub focused on the manufacture of green ammonia for fertilizer would allow America’s farmers to drastically reduce their carbon footprint while also providing price and supply stability to this critical farm input.”