You thought hydrogen was a clear, colorless gas? There are colors!!!

benfell

Hydrogen

Just a few days ago, I was explaining that

“grey” hydrogen is produced from natural gas;[1] this has been proposed for steel production in southwestern Pennsylvania.[2] It is not, no matter what people might tell you, “green.”[3] If the methane that would be released in natural gas production is captured, the resulting hydrogen is “blue.”[4][5]

It turns out there is also such a thing as “pink hydrogen.” You might be rolling your eyes at this point, wondering first, just how many “colors” of hydrogen (the gas itself is clear and colorless) there are,[6] and second, what the fuck “pink hydrogen” is.

I can’t answer the first question,[7] but “pink hydrogen” is produced using nuclear power. I’m going to leave that there at this point: I haven’t looked at the hazards of nuclear power in decades and when I did, I hadn’t returned to school (which I did in 2003), so my views on nuclear power are, ahem, uneducated. That doesn’t mean I don’t have concerns—no matter what they do to improve nuclear power plant safety, I still, in all these decades (and it ain’t like the question is new), haven’t heard an adequate answer to the question of what to do with nuclear waste.

Most hydrogen produced today in the U.S. is “brown.” It is made via steam-methane reforming, in which steam is used to produce hydrogen from a methane source like natural gas. So while both of these processes produce clean, zero-emission hydrogen fuel, they produce significant amounts of Earth-warming CO2 in the process, making them less-than-ideal choices for a truly clean hydrogen future.[8]

The stuff Alex Ivanenko labels “brown hydrogen”[9] would be what Camilla Palladino labeled “grey hydrogen.”[10] Stupid disputes over terminology are a reason for something well beyond eye-rolling.

Will Wade, “Billion-Dollar ‘Pink Hydrogen’ Plan on Hold as US Weighs Rules,” Bloomberg, May 30, 2023, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-30/pink-hydrogen-plans-hinge-on-fine-print-of-biden-climate-law

Illiberalism


Fig. 1. Photograph by Joachim F. Thurn, August 1991, Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F089030-0003, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE.

Kareem Fahim and Louisa Loveluck, “Erdogan wins reelection in Turkey after bitter campaign,” Washington Post, May 28, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/28/turkey-election-runoff-erdogan-kilicdaroglu/

Asli Aydintasbas, “Erdogan won Turkey’s election. But this is not the end of the story,” Washington Post, May 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/29/turkey-election-results-erdogan-challenge/

Wojciech Kość, “Political uproar in Poland after Duda pledges to sign Kremlin commission law,” Politico, May 29, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/politics-election-poland-andrzej-duda-russia-law-donald-tusk-pis-civic-platform/

Matthew Miller, “Concerns Over Potential use of New Polish Legislation to Target Opposition,” U.S. Department of State, May 29, 2023, https://www.state.gov/concerns-over-potential-use-of-new-polish-legislation-to-target-opposition/

Kareem Fahim, “Erdogan continues divisive rhetoric following victory,” Washington Post, May 30, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/29/erdogan-post-election-harsh-rhetoric/

Ishaan Tharoor, “Erdogan becomes an era-defining electoral autocrat,” Washington Post, May 30, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/30/erdogan-autocrat-electoral-power/

Jeffrey Epstein


Fig. 1. “Donald Trump with his future wife Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000.” Photograph credited to Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images, February 2000,[11] fair use.

My expectation now is that we’ll be getting revelations dribbling out a little at a time about all the powerful people Jeffrey Epstein dealt with (and may have procured underage girls for)[12] for a while now.

Khadeeja Safdar and David Benoit, “Jamie Dimon Says He Never Discussed Jeffrey Epstein’s Accounts at JPMorgan; Jes Staley Says Dimon Did,” Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/jamie-dimon-says-he-never-discussed-jeffrey-epsteins-accounts-at-jpmorgan-jes-staley-says-dimon-did-b11f0da5

Gilead

Donald Trump

Supposedly, Donald Trump was not involved in a scheme to defraud his supporters by selling them “legal tender” that was definitely not “legal tender.”[13]

Corky Siemaszko and Brandy Zadrozny, “‘Trump Bucks’ retailers’ websites taken down, days after being exposed for selling bogus currency,” NBC News, May 31, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-bucks-scam-websites-unavailable-rcna86916

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Birthright citizenship is included in the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which was passed by the Senate in 1866 and ratified two years later. The relevant passage says: “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

In 1898, in US v Wong Kim Ark, the supreme court settled an outstanding question, ruling that the child of Chinese citizens born in the US was automatically a US citizen.

[Donald] Trump has repeatedly said he will remove the right regardless.[14]

Bess Levin, “Report: Trump’s Lawyer Revealed Some Unfortunate Things for Trump in Classified-Docs Case,” Vanity Fair, May 30, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/05/donald-trump-evan-corcoran-documents-investigation

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Team Trump Scrambles to Unmask the Feds Investigating Him,” Rolling Stone, May 30, 2023, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-fbi-justice-department-purge-1234743318/

Martin Pengelly, “Donald Trump reiterates pledge to scrap birthright US citizenship,” Guardian, May 31, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/31/donald-trump-birthright-us-citizenship

White Christian nationalism


Fig. 1. In terms of geographic area, Pennsylvania is very much a white Christian nationalist kind of place. Photograph by author, January 5, 2023.

Martin Pengelly, “Donald Trump reiterates pledge to scrap birthright US citizenship,” Guardian, May 31, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/31/donald-trump-birthright-us-citizenship

  1. [1]Camilla Palladino, “Lex in depth: the staggering cost of a green hydrogen economy,” Financial Times, May 28, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e22930b-a007-4729-951f-78d6685a7514↩
  2. [2]Jon Hurdle, “‘Green Steel’ would curb carbon emissions, spur economic revival in Southwest Pennsylvania, study says,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 18, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2023/04/18/green-steel-curb-carbon-emissions-renewables/stories/202304170092↩
  3. [3]Stuart Braun, “The true cost of fracked US ‘freedom gas,’” Deutsche Welle, March 28, 2022, https://www.dw.com/en/the-true-cost-of-fracked-us-freedom-gas/a-61283540; Camilla Palladino, “Lex in depth: the staggering cost of a green hydrogen economy,” Financial Times, May 28, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e22930b-a007-4729-951f-78d6685a7514; Hiroko Tabuchi, “For Many, Hydrogen Is the Fuel of the Future. New Research Raises Doubts,” New York Times, August 16, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/climate/hydrogen-fuel-natural-gas-pollution.html↩
  4. [4]Hiroko Tabuchi, “For Many, Hydrogen Is the Fuel of the Future. New Research Raises Doubts,” New York Times, August 16, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/climate/hydrogen-fuel-natural-gas-pollution.html↩
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Actually, we might have a few Molochs,” Irregular Bullshit, May 28, 2023, https://disunitedstates.com/2023/05/28/actually-we-might-have-a-few-molochs/↩
  6. [6]Alex Ivanenko, “A Look At The ‘Colors’ Of Hydrogen That Could Power Our Future,” Forbes, August 31, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/08/31/a-look-at-the-colors-of-hydrogen-that-could-power-our-future/↩
  7. [7]This article does not list “pink” hydrogen and, so far as I know, there may be yet more colors: Alex Ivanenko, “A Look At The ‘Colors’ Of Hydrogen That Could Power Our Future,” Forbes, August 31, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/08/31/a-look-at-the-colors-of-hydrogen-that-could-power-our-future/↩
  8. [8]Alex Ivanenko, “A Look At The ‘Colors’ Of Hydrogen That Could Power Our Future,” Forbes, August 31, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/08/31/a-look-at-the-colors-of-hydrogen-that-could-power-our-future/↩
  9. [9]Alex Ivanenko, “A Look At The ‘Colors’ Of Hydrogen That Could Power Our Future,” Forbes, August 31, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/08/31/a-look-at-the-colors-of-hydrogen-that-could-power-our-future/↩
  10. [10]Camilla Palladino, “Lex in depth: the staggering cost of a green hydrogen economy,” Financial Times, May 28, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e22930b-a007-4729-951f-78d6685a7514↩
  11. [11]Martin Pengelly, “‘She say anything about me?’ Trump raised Ghislaine Maxwell link with aides,” Guardian, October 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/04/trump-ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-maggie-haberman-book-confidence-man↩
  12. [12]Khadeeja Safdar and David Benoit, “Jamie Dimon Says He Never Discussed Jeffrey Epstein’s Accounts at JPMorgan; Jes Staley Says Dimon Did,” Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/jamie-dimon-says-he-never-discussed-jeffrey-epsteins-accounts-at-jpmorgan-jes-staley-says-dimon-did-b11f0da5; Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, “Jeffrey Epstein’s former pilot testifies Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew flew aboard Epstein’s private plane,” CNN, November 30, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/30/us/ghislaine-maxwell-pilot/index.html↩
  13. [13]Corky Siemaszko and Brandy Zadrozny, “‘Trump Bucks’ retailers’ websites taken down, days after being exposed for selling bogus currency,” NBC News, May 31, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-bucks-scam-websites-unavailable-rcna86916↩
  14. [14]Martin Pengelly, “Donald Trump reiterates pledge to scrap birthright US citizenship,” Guardian, May 31, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/31/donald-trump-birthright-us-citizenship↩

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