Delivering Equitable and Meaningful Community Benefits via Clean Hydrogen Hubs

This report by RMI provides guidance and best practices for developers participating in the US Department of Energy's (DOE) $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) program. It focuses on the necessity of meaningful, two-way community engagement and the implementation of Community Benefits Plans (CBPs) to ensure an equitable energy transition, particularly for disadvantaged communities.

• The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program aims to catalyze over $40 billion in private investment and produce more than 3 million metric tons of clean hydrogen annually, contributing to a national goal of 10 million tons per year by 2030.
• The DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) requires all funding recipients to implement a Community Benefits Plan (CBP). These plans must address two-way community engagement, Justice40 requirements, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) goals, and the creation of high-quality local jobs.
• There is significant ambiguity in federal funding announcements regarding the Justice40 Initiative, specifically concerning how to define and measure the "overall benefits" that must flow to disadvantaged communities (DACs), as well as how to identify non-geographically defined DAC groups.
• Lack of procedural equity and failure to meaningfully engage local communities can lead to significant project losses; one analysis of 53 utility-scale renewable energy projects showed a loss of nearly 4,600 megawatts (MW) of potential capacity due to social opposition.
• Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) are legally enforceable tools used to secure local buy-in, but they often fail if the negotiating groups do not represent the whole community, if benefits are insufficient compared to government subsidies, or if they lack clauses for when developers sell project rights.
• Case studies illustrate that failure to secure community buy-in can lead to project cancellation or severe delays. Nature Energy withdrew a biogas facility application in the Village of Roberts, Wisconsin, in October 2022, and Summit Carbon Solutions has faced multiple permit denials in North Dakota and South Dakota for its CO2 pipeline.

APA

Sheerazi, H., Westler, G., Gamage, C., McClellan, M., & Bukirwa, P. (2024). Delivering Equitable and Meaningful Community Benefits via Clean Hydrogen Hubs. RMI. https://rmi.org/resources/delivering-equitable-and-meaningful-community-benefits-via-clean-hydrogen-hubs/

Chicago

Sheerazi, Hadia, Gareth Westler, Chathurika Gamage, Moana McClellan, and Patience Bukirwa. Delivering Equitable and Meaningful Community Benefits via Clean Hydrogen Hubs. RMI, 2024. https://rmi.org/resources/delivering-equitable-and-meaningful-community-benefits-via-clean-hydrogen-hubs/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sheerazi |first1=Hadia |last2=Westler |first2=Gareth |last3=Gamage |first3=Chathurika |last4=McClellan |first4=Moana |last5=Bukirwa |first5=Patience |title=Delivering Equitable and Meaningful Community Benefits via Clean Hydrogen Hubs |publisher=RMI |date=29 January 2024 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/delivering-equitable-and-meaningful-community-benefits-via-clean-hydrogen-hubs/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sheerazi2024delivering, author = {Sheerazi, Hadia and Westler, Gareth and Gamage, Chathurika and McClellan, Moana and Bukirwa, Patience}, title = {{Delivering Equitable and Meaningful Community Benefits via Clean Hydrogen Hubs}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/delivering-equitable-and-meaningful-community-benefits-via-clean-hydrogen-hubs/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }