PORTLAND, OR – Oregon’s largest gas utility, NW Natural, has in recent years touted hydrogen-blended gas and “renewable natural gas” as the solution to reducing the carbon intensity of its fuels and meeting the state’s targets for curbing planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution.
Under Oregon’s Climate Protection Program, natural gas companies are responsible for at least 26% of the overall reduction in the state’s greenhouse gas pollution needed to get to 50% cuts by 2035 and 90% cuts to emissions by 2050.
To do it, the company partnered with Seattle-based Modern Hydrogen and with Tyson Foods Inc. The 2024 partnership with Modern Hydrogen was for a three-year pilot project to blend “green hydrogen” into the fuel NW Natural sends to customers. The 2023 Tyson Foods partnership involved a small-scale gas processing facility at the one of the processed meat giant’s Nebraska plants to capture methane and convert it into marketable natural gas.
“Today we’re looking to renewable natural gas, clean hydrogen, carbon capture and other ways to decarbonize our system,” then-NW Natural CEO David Anderson said in a news release announcing the Modern Hydrogen project. “People are eager for solutions that can be put into action today, and we’re proud to play our part.”
The projects were controversial among environmental groups who accused the company of greenwashing the reality of its gas supply, which is mostly made up of the potent greenhouse gas methane that’s extracted via drilling deep into the earth. And the Oregon Public Utilities Commission — responsible for reviewing the long-term emissions reduction plans every two years and ensuring utilities don’t leave customers paying for stranded assets — criticized the plans as “overly optimistic.”
Companies will need to present their latest emissions plans to the commission in 2026.
But any momentum on the alternative fuels schemes came to a halt in recent weeks.
In late November, Tyson closed the Lexington beef plant and with it, its renewable natural gas project. And earlier this month, Modern Hydrogen laid off nearly all of its employees in a “broader restructuring effort,” as reported by GeekWire, a Seattle-based technology news site.
On Wednesday, NW Natural laid off 30 of its own employees to reduce costs and address “concerns about customer affordability,” the Portland Business Journal first reported. Its Renewable Natural Gas program manager, Samantha Christenson, has not worked for the company since early December, according to LinkedIn.
Charlotte Shuff, a spokesperson for the utilities watchdog group Citizens’ Utility Board, said she was unaware of the Modern Hydrogen layoffs but was monitoring the Tyson closure. It remains to be seen whether both will be sunken investments for NW Natural customers and shareholders, and how they will impact emissions plans.
Neither NW Natural nor Modern Hydrogen would comment on the impact of the layoffs on the Portland-based hydrogen blending project.
Stefanie Week, a spokesperson for NW Natural, said in an email that she had no updates to share and declined to comment on whether the partnership and project with Modern Hydrogen were over.
“Our pilot project in Portland has been successful in terms of the information we’ve gathered and the ability to demonstrate how we can use our existing energy system in new ways to help lower emissions,” she wrote. “This pilot added to our hydrogen blending work at our largest resource center where we tested up to 20% hydrogen blends in a myriad of different end-use equipment types over three years successfully. Both efforts are important for NW Natural to be ready for when use of hydrogen on our system has market and policy support.”
Modern Hydrogen CEO Tony Pan declined to comment when reached by phone.
Week said company officials are reviewing the Tyson plant’s closure and “the RNG (renewable natural gas) project’s options and will seek a path forward that prioritizes the best interests of our customers and shareholders.”
She said they have several other renewable natural gas projects that will cover about 4% of gas supplied to residential customers in 2026.
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