Hydrogen Hustle: Report Exposes Dirty Energy Wish-List to Co-opt Hydrogen Funding

WASHINGTON – Today, Friends of the Earth released a informe that details how dirty energy industries are seeking to manipulate the 45V hydrogen production tax credit for their own financial gain. Hydrogen Hustle provides a roadmap of key polluter demands to undermine hydrogen emissions requirements. The new report comes at the start of a three-day public hearing on the credit sponsored by the Treasury and IRS.  

Topline findings: 

• Big Oil, major utilities companies and nuclear giants are undermining the Biden Administration’s modest steps towards a “three pillars” approach to hydrogen. 
• Fossil fuel companies are joining forces with factory farms and landfills to demand that dirty fossil hydrogen be allowed to claim the highest tier of the credit.  
• Prominent Blue State governors, including Jay Inslee and Gavin Newson, are using their credentials as climate leaders to weaken the integrity of the 45V credit. 
• Big Oil is attempting to “lock-in” the Department of Energy’s low-ball estimate for methane leakage, 
• Methane gas “certifiers” like Project Canary are siding with Big Oil to further weaken the Biden Administration’s already flawed approach to emissions modeling.
   

“If Big Oil and other polluters get their way, then the hydrogen credit will become yet another fossil fuel cash grab,” said Sarah Lutz, Climate Campaigner at Friends of the Earth and author of the report. “It is more important than ever for the Biden Administration to stand firm with a strong, science-driven approach.” 

Earlier this year, Friends of the Earth led over 75 environmental and justice-oriented groups in a letter to the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department, calling on them to ensure that dirty energy industries like fossil fuels, nuclear, wood, and methane biogas can’t obscure their true emissions. In 2023, FoE first sounded the alarm on Big Oil’s campaign to weaken the hydrogen tax credit. Now that the Biden Administration has released its draft guía, the Hydrogen Hustle report provides a Cliff Notes guide to how polluters’ lobbying has adapted and on the environmental cost of potential concessions. 

PRESS CONTACT: Erika Seiber, [email protected]