The Biden administration has revised rules to allow hydrogen produced using power from existing nuclear plants to secure tax credits as long as the project averts a nuclear plant’s retirement.
The new rules, announced on 3 January, are a change from draft rules that required developers to produce hydrogen from new clean energy projects such as solar or wind.
“The extensive revisions… provide the certainty that hydrogen producers need to keep their projects moving forward and make the United States a global leader in truly green hydrogen,” said John Podesta, Biden’s senior climate adviser, in a statement.
In a separate statement the US Treasury Department said: “If a nuclear retirement is averted, then the additional demand from hydrogen production will not have induced emissions elsewhere.”