INTERVIEW: US hydrogen must be cleaner to compete internationally, says EDF

The US slowing down hydrogen infrastructure spending and potentially allowing for "dirtier" products could hurt the country's international competitiveness, Beth Trask, vice-president of global energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a interview with Platts.

Trask said in the March 27 interview that she does not believe the hydrogen bubble has burst, but noted there are some significant cooling factors present in the space.

Major clean hydrogen projects in the US are facing uncertainty over the future of large-scale infrastructure projects after President Trump paused the disbursement of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law on Jan. 20. Now, the US Department of Energy may consider canceling four of the seven regional hydrogen hubs, according to a document circulated by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association to its members on March 25.

Trask said low-emission hydrogen is an "essential solution" for decarbonizing certain industries, including long-distance transportation, maritime shipping and international aviation. She also noted that steel, cement, chemical and other "hard to abate" sectors may require hydrogen innovation to successfully meet decarbonization goals.

"It's not a good thing if we slow down ... to just close the faucet to just a trickle of hydrogen projects ... it's going to make it much harder for us to achieve decarbonization targets by mid-century," Trask said. "It also, from a US perspective, hurts our global competitiveness. There are other countries that are going to step up and provide those products and services."

However, the cooling of hydrogen hype could also be beneficial for the nascent industry in some ways, Trask said.

"We want maximum climate benefits out of hydrogen," Trask said.

Grounding the conversation around hydrogen to more realistic levels could allow for a "more nuanced, technical conversation," she added.

"You have to produce it, manage it, and use it carefully to get climate benefits out of it," Trask said.

While hydrogen industry development is facing challenges in the US, momentum in other parts of the world continues, she said, pointing to the International Maritime Organization's upcoming April meetings and the International Civil Aviation Organization's potential action later in 2025. The IMO is developing new measures for reducing emissions from global shipping and will soon discuss new market mechanisms for reaching net-zero goals, which US hydrogen companies are watching "really closely," Trask said.

"In some ways, the US is taking a step back, but the international community is moving forward and really setting the rules for two major sectors, and that will influence how US companies are able to produce a product for the international market," Trask said.

Depending on how these international clean fuel market mechanisms shake out, US companies could be put at a disadvantage under the federal clean hydrogen production tax credit because "companies are incentivized to produce a dirtier blue hydrogen product," Trask said.

"How are [US products] going to fare on the international market with entities that have stronger standards?" she said.

The final rules for the production tax credit, called 45V, is based on the US DOE's "Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation" model, or GREET. Trask said the GREET model undercounts the emissions resulting from hydrogen production.

Initially, producers looking to benefit from 45V can rely on the national emissions leak rate in calculating the lifecycle emissions for their products, which is estimated at 0.9%. However, that estimate is "kind of old-fashioned," Trask said.

With advanced leak monitoring technologies that exist today, the EDF now estimates some basins are "much higher" than 0.9%, she said. For example, she said the Permian Basin "consistently has a leak rate that's three or more times that national average."

Trask said she predicts adjustments to the GREET model would be "low priority" under the new administration, meaning civil society organizations like the EDF, the UN Environment Program and the International Methane Observatory will "lean in" and ensure companies fulfill emissions management commitments.

"[US oil and gas majors] are making serious commitments to addressing the methane problem, and so we're going to be really holding them accountable to those commitments," Trask said.