The Government announces that the bill to promote hydrogen “is ready”

The curb on the multi-million dollar investment of a foreign company for green hydrogen was the focus of a forum organized by the province of Río Negro. For most of the day, executives, pundits and diplomats chewed their anger at a certain iofficial nation to promote the sector. The Secretary of Energy, Flavia Royón, arrived at 5 in the afternoon, to try to calm things down: “the bill (to promote the sector) has finished its administrative circuit and is finished”, he was speaking before an audience in a large hall of the Llao-Llao.

“The Minister of Economy -Sergio Massa- said that the project is already about to be sent to Congress, therefore I believe the minister”, Royón said later clarion.

The government of Río Negro has organized a forum dedicated to this new energy, which is obtained through plants and the use of water, which separates hydrogen from oxygen by a method called electrolysis. There has been criticism of official paralysis to advance on regulatory issues in this area. Everything relaxed in front of Royón’s announcement.

“This hydrogen development project has been concluded in the administrative sphere and in the next few days it will be sent to the Presidency,” Royón said on a stage he shared with Arabela Carreras, governor of the Río Negro. “It was the overriding theme in all the previous panels,” Carreras told her as if the national government official didn’t know. Officials from the Ministry of Energy attended the previous panels and participated in the informal exchanges that took place.

“We were all waiting for this. It’s good that this has already been agreed”, Carreras returned to him on stage where Royón was exposing. “We would like to know the text and more if the president is going to send it to Congress,” the president added.

But Royón never named the president or his times. When clarion When asked if the president had this law on his legislative agenda, he replied “Sergio (Massa) told me it will be sent to Congress, so I believe Sergio.”

Royón read a few paragraphs of the bill and stated the main concepts, such as “fiscal stability for 30 years” and “guarantee of free access to the free foreign exchange market”.

President Alberto Fernández has told Congress he wants to move forward with investments in “green” hydrogen. He did it twice, at the opening of the 2022 and 2023 legislative sessions. But he never sent legislation on the matter.

the Australian fortescue He had a study on a project to disburse $8.4 billion in a green hydrogen development in Río Negro. As Argentina has made no progress on a law to encourage investment in the sector, Fortescue has stepped on the accelerator in Brazil and suspended his Río Negro venture, as anticipated clarion. It was for not having a law with its own regulatory framework.

He Global Green Hydrogen Forum brought together executives, experts, politicians and academics at the Llao-Llao Hotel in Bariloche.

“The province (Río Negro) will always be available for the national executive power – whatever the color – to advance in green hydrogen,” provincial officials say.

The lack of a law, and Fortescue’s reluctance to announce new investments, have been the almost exclusive topics that have dominated the conversation in the corridors of the forum since it began on Thursday morning. When Royón arrived at the event at nearly 5pm, he pretended not to know that government courtships had dominated the previous panels and the dialogues of those present.

“We are not leaving” they underline in Fortescue. The project is in a pre-feasibility phase. (something that started in 2021). To advance to the next phases of the project, it is essential to have a regulatory framework that defines the basis for the development of this sector in Argentina,” the company explained in a statement.

The Australian ambassador, Edward Twisk, described the keys to the development of the energy industry in his country. that territory is one of the largest exporters of LNG. “The jurisdiction (the place where a company operates) must aim for the development of the sector to get investment,” she said, criticizing the official policy.

According to Fortescue, the law must guarantee “access to finance at internationally competitive costs; free availability of foreign currency to pay debts and creditors abroad; a favorable tax regime; financial and fiscal stability; coexistence between the Law for the Promotion of Hydrogen and Free Zones and the expansion of the national electricity system”. Royón read some of these points in his public presentation.