Clean hydrogen energy revolution is being hijacked by corporate greed, crony deals, and political shortsightedness
10/08/2025 / By Lance D Johnson
The promise of hydrogen as a clean energy panacea has never burned brighter. A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences lays out a roadmap for how hydrogen—specifically, hydrogen derived from biomass (Bio-H?)—could slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 1.7 billion metric tons between 2025 and 2050. That’s the equivalent of taking 370 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year.
However, the window to make this work is slamming shut, thanks to a perfect storm of political backpedaling, corporate greed, and a stubborn refusal to learn from the past. The recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—a piece of legislation that reads like a love letter to the fossil fuel industry—has pulled the rug out from under the most promising clean hydrogen incentives just as they were gaining traction. Meanwhile, the industries that stand to profit most from business-as-usual are already positioning themselves to control the narrative, the technology, and, ultimately, the transition.
Key points:
Hydrogen isn’t a silver bullet—it’s a tool, and its climate benefits depend entirely on how it’s produced. Today, 95% of U.S. hydrogen comes from natural gas, a process that emits as much CO? as burning coal. The study reveals that biomass-based hydrogen (Bio-H?) could cut emissions by 1.6 to 2 times more than scenarios without it—but only if we act now.
The political rug-pull: The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) introduced the 45V tax credit, a landmark incentive for clean hydrogen. But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—passed in July—eliminates those credits after 2027, just as the industry is trying to scale up. This isn’t just shortsighted; it’s a deliberate sabotage of the one policy that could have made clean hydrogen competitive.
The corporate shell game: Big Oil and Gas are rebranding themselves as “hydrogen leaders,” but their version of hydrogen is blue hydrogen—a trojan horse that relies on natural gas paired with carbon capture, a technology that’s expensive, unproven at scale, and leak-prone. Meanwhile, Bio-H?, which uses agricultural waste and forest residues, is being sidelined despite its immediate viability.
The demand problem: Right now, 75% of hydrogen use is slated for transportation—think fuel-cell cars and trucks—but the biggest emissions cuts would come from industrial sectors like steel and fertilizer production.
Yet without targeted policies, hydrogen will flow to the easiest markets, not the ones where it can do the most good.
The clock is ticking: The study warns that if we don’t invest in Bio-H? now, we’ll miss our chance to bridge the gap until water electrolysis (splitting water into hydrogen using renewable energy) becomes cost-competitive—which won’t happen until 2045 at the earliest.
The hydrogen bait-and-switch: Why we’re being sold a false promise
https://www.pollution.news/2025-10-08-clean-hydrogen-energy-revolution-stifled-by-corporate-greed-politics.html
