The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Fletcher.

LF: Thank you Mr. Chairman, and I join in welcoming our new members and congratulating Chairwoman McMorris Rodgers on her historic chairmanship and thanking our witnesses for being here today. It has been a long day, but I have been here and appreciated your testimony. As we’ve heard throughout the day, our country leads in energy production and innovation, and we lead in these areas because of the work that is done in my district and surrounding areas in Houston. Ones where we touch every single segment of the energy industry from exploration and production transportation transmission, marketing, technology – both traditional and renewable. And I’m going to resist the Congressional urge to spend five minutes talking about how great my district is, although, it is. But I want to share these data points because I think it really helps underscore both the importance of the issues to me and also the depth and breadth of knowledge of my constituents that I bring to the work of this committee. It’s with that in mind that I – I’m glad to say I’ve heard a lot of things I agree with today, from our witnesses, from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but I have also heard a few things I disagree with and. I can’t go through all of them here, but I am disappointed to hear some of the attacks on the 117th Congress’s energy policies rather than more ideas about how we can work together to build on the historic investments that we made in the last Congress. And, um we have talked about some today, especially the focus on permitting issues that affects all sectors and which I very much look forward to working on. but I do think it’s important to underscore that the Infrastructure Investment and jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act that we passed last Congress are historic pieces of legislation that make energy and infrastructure investments that further strengthen American energy security and drive innovation for our energy future. At this moment we have an energy sector that is looking stronger than ever, with the EIA expecting US domestic oil production to set a new record high this year of 12.4 million barrels a day which would surpass the previous record set in 2019. The rig count is back up; it was 771 last week. Net exports are also expected to rise, further strengthening our energy security and importantly, that of our allies. This is happening while we are working to meet growing global demand for energy and reducing emissions. The bottom line is that we need to do all the things we are doing and more, and we need a holistic approach. I really look forward to talking about what that is and how we come together to do that on this committee, this Congress. But for today, I want to focus my questions on one of the programs that we passed in the bipartisan infrastructure law, funding for the implementation and design of regional hydrogen hubs. And through this program, Congress authorized the development of multiple hydrogen hubs to advance the country's clean hydrogen sector and the department of energy will select 6 to 10 regions to establish these hydrogen hubs. Mr. Crenshaw and I recently wrote a letter to Secretary Granholm making the case, not surprisingly, for the department to select Houston as a location for a hydrogen hub under the program. I want to direct my question first to dr. Unruh Cohen. In the interest of time, I’m going to ask this, I have a quick follow-up if we can get to it, if not I will submit it to you for the record. But can you just talk a little bit about how this program will advance hydrogen technology deployment and why federal support is essential in emerging technological sectors like hydrogen?

Ana Unruh Cohen: Yes. I will sing Houston’s praises in the process because they are a great example of where industry, academia, the local government have come together to identify, we need to take our strengths and talents in the energy industry and expand that. You will be a good candidate for the hydrogen hub. That the program will drive these types of partnerships between industry and the federal government to develop the new technology.  And hydrogen is critical for all the petrochemical work that happens in the Houston area. Because we are going to need clean green hydrogen to help decarbonize some of those processes. So that we can benefit and have clean chemicals coming out of our domestic plants.

LF: Thank you for that and with the time I have left, I do want, I may have to get your question for the record, and if anyone else wants to submit a response, I would appreciate that because I think while this investment is essential to jump-starting the technology, I worry there is still a lot of hurdles that Congress needs to address before we can see widespread adoption. DOE's 2020 hydrogen program plan identified rights of way and permitting issues for hydrogen pipelines as challenges for hydrogen delivery infrastructure. I think there is still a lot of unresolved questions regarding citing, political federal state jurisdictional conflicts, and the regulation of pipeline rates in terms of services that need to be resolved. With the 12 seconds I have, left – oh have I gone over? I'm in the wrong direction. With that, that is my question. If you could respond to that for the record, I would appreciate it. I will yield back the balance of my time that I’ve gone over. Thank you very much, mister chairman, for indulging me.

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