As a compulsive litter collector along the roadsides of the American West, I have found that Bud Lite cans are the most littered beer cans, by far. But even if some Bud Lite drinkers are unethical, the company that produces their beer, Anheuser-Busch, is becoming a national leader in the fight against air pollution and global warming.
Anheuser Busch (A-B) is by far the largest brewer in America and has an international footprint. They produce Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Beck’s and other beer brands in the US in mega-breweries located across the country. Brewing beer on this scale leads to considerable pollution; from the electricity used in the breweries, the petroleum burned in distribution of the beer, and the production of the cans and bottles.
In this age when our red headed president is encouraging companies to increase their pollution and burn more oil, A-B is going in the opposite direction, setting a standard for the beer and other industries to follow.
A-B has already reduced its carbon emissions across its brewing operations by 30% in the last 10 years and will use 100% renewable energy in brewing production by the end of 2018! It plans to further reduce corporate emissions by another 25% in the next 8 years. Now they are taking a huge step by switching their truck fleet from petroleum to hydrogen fuels which will be zero carbon emission.
A-B will start using hydrogen powered large trucks to distribute their beer starting in 2020. Eventually they will require their contract distributors to use hydrogen in local delivery as well.
Hydrogen powered trucks produce no greenhouse gas emission or other pollution since they use a fuel-cell rather than an internal combustion engine to power the vehicle. The fuel cell combines hydrogen with oxygen which releases energy to drive an electric motor. Better yet, hydrogen fuel can be produced with wind or solar powered electrolysers which use renewable electricity to break water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen and produce no pollution at all in the process. Thus the entire beer transportation process can be zero emission, with only oxygen and heat as byproducts.
A-B plans to lease 800 trucks built by Nikola which would be fueled at a system of 28 hydrogen fueling stations. Eventually that fuel station network will build out to 700 fueling stations in the US and Canada.
Let’s hope that the environmentally conscious craft brewing companies like New Belgium and Stone follow suit and join the hydrogen revolution.
These developments from Anheuser Busch will really start to push trucking in other industries away from highly polluting diesel trucks, helping the US to begin to shut down the oil industry, save the climate and save our landscapes from the ravages of the oil industry.
