The Steel Manufacturers Association applauds the Biden-Harris administration’s announcement of $7 billion for seven regional clean hydrogen hubs, known as H2Hubs, in a bid to accelerate the commercial-scale deployment of hydrogen.

American steelmakers are among the industrial producers that stand to benefit from access to hydrogen. Steel mills in northwestern Indiana, for instance, should benefit from the availability of hydrogen produced at the Midwestern hub, which will be designed to serve Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. And existing and forthcoming mills in Ohio and West Virginia will likely have the option to use hydrogen from another H2Hub sited in Appalachia. Other H2Hubs are scheduled to be built in California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas, among other locations.

“With the creation of the hydrogen hubs, the federal government should make hydrogen a more viable energy option for steel mills and many other industrial facilities, though barriers remain,” SMA President Philip K. Bell said. “Construction of the hubs will require a significant amount of steel, and it makes sense to build them out of American steel — the safest, lowest-emissions steel in the world.”

Read the announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy.