REM: Lobbying under way as US clean hydrogen rules in debate

A public hearing will be held in late March on the US Treasury Department’s new and controversial clean hydrogen guidance, unveiled just before Christmas. And fierce lobbying is now under way to try and influence the final rules.

It is unclear when the rules will become established.

The proposals are a tiered system that the administration says will bring $140bn in revenue and 700,000 jobs by 2030, helping the US produce 50mn tonnes of H2 by 2050.

“That’s equivalent to the amount of energy currently used by every bus, every plane, every train and every ship in the US combined,” said Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk in a phone call with reporters.

To achieve the top tier, Treasury released proposed three pillars or requirements for additionality, hourly matching and geographical correlation to try to make sure that fossil fuel does not directly or indirectly produce the electricity used to make the green hydrogen.

Additionality means that green hydrogen would have to be produced from new renewable energy, and not fossil fuel-powered electricity, according to the proposals. Existing clean energy can thus continue to help decarbonise the grid.