The high-stakes debate over green hydrogen

4 August 2023

Imminent rules could kick-start America’s clean hydrogen industry — or cause a massive spike in emissions.

On The Carbon Copy podcast this week:

In August, the U.S. government is set to issue standards for hydrogen tax credits. Over the last year, a debate has been raging over how strict those standards should be for matching renewables with hydrogen production.

With rules set to be released in the coming weeks, ad campaigns have popped up from industry trying to persuade the feds to adopt looser standards, and from green groups pushing for stricter ones.

Without clear standards for matching renewables to hydrogen production, emissions could double, says Adithya Bhashyam, an associate hydrogen analyst at BloombergNEF.

Adi closely tracks the industry, and has been modeling the market impacts of different standards. This week, we’ll talk with him about how standards might unfold in the U.S., how Europe’s newly passed rules might influence the outcome, and why we need green hydrogen in the first place.