The Department of Energy didn’t ensure enough staff or risk controls were in place to handle a high-profile $8 billion hydrogen program, the agency’s inspector general office said in a report released Thursday.
The program, which Congress funded through the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, aims to establish hubs around the country to produce low-carbon hydrogen. It was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s plans to cut planet-warming emissions, but the Trump administration has signaled that it may cancel four of the seven hubs.
The IG report, which is dated Monday, found that DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations — which was also created in the infrastructure law — “did not adequately plan, resource, or develop controls to help ensure the H2Hubs Program met its goals and objectives.”
“Additionally, the OCED and the H2Hubs Program had not conducted an assessment on its human capital posture to determine whether adequate staffing resources with the requisite skills and knowledge were available to meet current and future mission goals and objectives,” the report added. “The issues occurred, in part, because the OCED encountered numerous challenges as a newly created office within the Department.”
