The future of a hydrogen production facility in St. Regis is uncertain after the Trump administration canceled nearly $8 billion in clean energy funding in October.

In 2023, St. Regis was tapped by the U.S. Department of Energy to take part in its billion-dollar Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. The hub is one of seven across the country in the department’s Hydrogen Hubs Program, an initiative to develop a nationwide network of large-scale hydrogen production.  

Days after St. Regis Solar Hydrogen’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, however, the federal energy department canceled up to $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects.  

The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub lost up to $1 billion in the sweep of funding cuts.  

“Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled,” Russell Vought, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, posted on X, on Oct. 1.  

The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association is appealing the decision to end the grant, and some members of Congress have called for an investigation into the Department of Energy over the funding cuts.  

In a letter dated Oct. 20, California congressional Democrats asked the energy department’s Office of Inspector General to conduct the investigation, calling the termination of grants unlawful.  

Federal monies provided to the St. Regis project, which accounted for about 20% of its total funding, was stripped in the process of grant terminations, according to Sen. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis. The other 80% of project funding came from private donors. 

Congressman Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., did not comment directly on the funding cuts when reached by the Inter Lake, but said he supported continuing the St. Regis Solar Hydrogen project with private funding, according to Garrett Brown, a spokesperson from Zinke’s Office.  

“[Zinke] does not believe it is the obligation of the taxpayer to pay for it,” Brown said in an email.  

Without a federal backbone, the project’s viability is now a question of private investment and customer demand, Loge said. Some private donors are already hesitant about their investment after the federal government backed out, he added.  

Mineral County Commissioner Duane Simons told the Inter Lake he knew little about how the project was impacted or how it would be supported without federal funding.  

Mineral County residents anticipated additional high paying jobs the hydrogen project was touted to bring, especially after the Idaho Forest Group shuttered operations in St. Regis in 2021.  

“We could certainly use the jobs,” Simons said.  

Loge estimated the hydrogen facility would bring five to 40 jobs at best, depending on demand. However, he and Simons agreed the county would benefit from additional tax revenue brought by the hydrogen project, given the county’s small tax base.  

But officials in charge of the St. Regis Solar Hydrogen Hub have clammed up since federal funding was cut, waving off questions from the Inter Lake when asked about what’s next for the hydrogen project or where it stands currently.  

George Bailey, CEO of the St. Regis Solar Hydrogen Hub, directed all inquiries to Chris Green, president of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. Green did not respond to multiple calls from the Inter Lake. 

AN AUDIT released by the Office of Inspector General in June dug into the planning and development of the Hydrogen Hubs Program. It found the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, a newly created office under the Department of Energy, failed to adequately plan, resource or develop controls to ensure the Hydrogen Hub Program’s success.  

While the program performed risk assessments of individual applicants during the selection process, it did not conduct an overall programmatic risk assessment, according to the audit.  

It also failed to perform additional risk assessments after applicants were selected for the program. The office originally promised a 50/50 government-to-recipient share of the costs for selectees, anticipating to spend approximately $14 billion on the program in total. 

Following award negotiations, however, total program costs rose to $50 billion, and the government-to-recipient cost changed to 14/86, according to the audit. Bailey told the Inter Lake in a text the St. Regis project is funded 20/80.  

This lack of planning was attributed to a lack of staffing in the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations at the time, the report found. The U.S. Department of Energy created the office shortly after it received $8 billion through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021. 

In June 2022, the office had 12 full-time equivalents on staff. With its small crew, staff focused on developing the hydrogen program, overseeing management of funds and working on its application selection process. 

Two years later, staffing levels increased to more than 250 federal employees and 165 support service contractors, according to the audit. A programmatic assessment, however, had still not been conducted, nor did the office assess whether the Hydrogen Hubs Program was adequately staffed. 

The Office of Inspector General recommended performing a programmatic risk assessment of the hydrogen program, as well as developing a comprehensive workforce plan.