The final battle over green hydrogen tax rules

Plug Power's green hydrogen transportation tanker. (Courtesy: Plug Power)

This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features E&E News reporter Christian Robles who covered the controversial debate over federal green hydrogen incentive rules.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” goes to Bill Weihl, who is transitioning from ClimateVoice’s Co-Executive Director to the role of Founder & Chief Strategic Advisor.

1. Berkeley Will Repeal Its Landmark Ban on Natural Gas in New Homes — The New York Times

Berkeley, California banned the installation of gas hookups in new homes back in 2019, but the law was struck down in the courts. Now, as part of a settlement, the city has agreed to repeal the law altogether. 13% of U.S. carbon pollution is from homes and buildings, largely due to natural gas burned in furnaces, stoves or hot water heaters. This rule would have been a first step to reducing this percentage.

More than 140 cities and local governments have made efforts to cut natural gas in new buildings, but have faced opposition from the gas industry, restaurants, and homebuilders. 24 states have now passed laws blocking local governments from passing regulations to restrict gas use.

2. BlackRock Issued Legal Warning Over ESG Strategy by Mississippi — Bloomberg

For at least the second time, BlackRock Inc. faces legal action from the state of Mississippi, which has called their ESG strategy “fraudulent”, claiming it misleads investors. The company, which manages $10 trillion worth of assets, could be banned from doing business in Mississippi. This comes just three months after a similar suit from the state of Tennessee, and last week the Texas Board of Education announced plans to pull $8 billion from Blackrock.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

3. Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis? — The New York Times

Swiss startup Climeworks has built a direct air capture (DAC) project powered by geothermal to pump 36,000 metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere annually – the largest in the world. Occidental Petroleum is building a DAC project in Texas that will capture 500,000 metric tons of CO2 annually – a project 10 times larger.

Critics argue it’s more expensive to pull a ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere than to prevent a ton of CO2 from being added. Others warn that innovation like this will provide an excuse to continue burning fossil fuels for longer.

4. NOAA gets dire warning about solar geoengineering — POLITICO

Climate change is already causing an increase in heat waves. Some companies want to respond by spraying aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the planet – mimicking the effects of a volcanic eruption – to create a temporary cooling effect.

Studying solar geoengineering has proven difficult, and risks could include ozone damage or weather pattern changes. Doing it locally to cool down one place could have a negative impact in other places, causing geopolitical problems. But there’s surprisingly little regulation in the U.S. to stop companies from moving forward with their geoengineering plans.

5. How do you ensure hydrogen is ‘clean’? Treasury rules draw fire. – E&E News

The Treasury Department’s draft rules for the IRA’s 45V hydrogen tax credits are causing disagreements between industry and environmentalists.

The Treasury wants to ensure the industry has incentives to grow using low-carbon sources. But industry leaders argue that strict regulations will hinder growth, especially for projects tied to nuclear power, due to high costs and long construction times. Environmentalists argue that the rules are necessary to ensure we don’t actually increase carbon pollution by powering hydrogen production with fossil fuels.

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This Week in Cleantech is hosted by Renewable Energy World senior content director John Engel and Tigercomm president Mike Casey. The show is produced by Brian Mendes with research support from Alex Petersen and Clare Quirin.