Investing in America, and Building a Clean Energy Future

By President Joe Biden

I’m here to announce one of the largest advanced manufacturing investments in the history of this nation: $7 billion in federal investments that are going to attract $40 billion in private investment in clean hydrogen to power our economy, spread over 16 states, creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, many of them union jobs. 

It’s an investment in our economic competitiveness, in a stronger energy-secure economy, and combating the existential threat of climate change. 

It’s all part of my plan to make things in America. 

Folks, you know, the press started calling my plan, “Bidenomics.” This announcement is a critical piece of that plan.  

Let me explain. I’ve made it a goal for our country to get to net-zero emissions from pollutants no later than 2050. Clean hydrogen is going to help us meet this goal. 

When it comes to charging our cars or powering our homes, all we need is clean electricity, from solar and wind. That’s just fine. We’re doing that. And we’re getting close to meeting that goal.

But when it comes to manufacturing things like steel, aluminum, and other materials in factories, you need to burn fuel to get that done. You can’t get it done with wind and solar power. You cannot generate that much energy. 

That’s where hydrogen comes in. With hydrogen, you can power the production of steel and aluminum. And it’s going to end up changing our transportation system, like trucks, rail, planes.

Clean hydrogen produces energy resources like wind and solar. 

They said we couldn’t do anything bipartisan in Congress. Well, I introduced the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. It got passed. And it contained funding to harness the benefits of hydrogen and to encourage states and industries to join together to create things called “hydrogen hubs.” 

And, folks, those hubs are about people coming together across state lines, across industries, across political parties to build a stronger, more sustainable economy and to rebuild our communities.

The hub in the Mid-Atlantic Region is made up of 17 sites spanning southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. And the hubs are taking existing infrastructure supporting the oil industry and oil pipelines and refineries, and repurposing them to generate, store, transport, and use clean hydrogen instead. This hub alone is going to produce 100,000 tons of hydrogen per year. And here are some of the examples of how it’s going to work. The Delaware City Refinery in my state—vacant—owned by Chesapeake Utilities in Georgetown, Delaware, and a former jet fuel terminal in New Jersey will all use renewable energy, like solar power, to produce clean hydrogen. 

Look, we’re not just creating jobs here in the region. In Western Pennsylvania, in Ohio, West Virginia, a hydrogen hub will bring another source of good-paying jobs to the coal communities so workers who have powered our nation for generations can now work and produce clean hydrogen, just like we’ve seen them start their careers reclaiming abandoned mines, manufacturing advanced batteries, and the solar industry. Because they deserve it.

They powered us for so long.

We’re doing the same thing at a hub in California, and another hub in the Dakotas and Minnesota. 

All across the country, from coast to coast, in the Heartland, we’re building a clean energy future here in America—not somewhere else.

Hubs are just one example of what we’re doing to rebuild America for all Americans. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re making the most substantial investment since President Eisenhower in roads, bridges, ports, airports, clean water, and high-speed Internet. These are good-paying jobs.

We’ve already announced over 38,000 projects across 4,500 communities all across this nation. 

And, folks, we’re just getting started. 

My “Investing in America” agenda has led to a manufacturing boom, attracting over half a trillion dollars in private investment in two-and-a-half years, in manufacturing and the industries of the future. 

And now, instead of exporting American jobs, we’re creating American jobs and exporting American products. 

I came to office determined to get this country up again, so we could face the existential threat of Climate Change and still grow—to fundamentally change our economy, and to transition this country to a clean energy future.

In the Inflation Reduction Act that we passed, I was able to put in $369 billion. to fight climate change. It’s the largest investment of its kind anywhere in the world—the single-largest investment ever.

Look, with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re seeing cranes in the air, shovels in the ground, and pride coming back to cities and towns all across the country. 

I truly believe that this country is about to take off. Because for the first time in a long time, we’re actually investing in America. We’re investing in Americans, not just America. We’re investing in our future. 

I can honestly say I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future. 

We just have to remember who in the hell we are. We’re the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity if we work together. Nothing.

Because of you all, we’re going to get it done. We’re the leading country in the world. We’re going to remain that way.

For the Record is an edited version of a speech by President Joe Biden in October 2023 at the Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia.

Q1 2024