The United States stands at a pivotal point on the path to addressing climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act will over the next decade unleash hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies designed to make clean technologies so cheap they will be rapidly deployed, helping the nation cut emissions some 40 percent by 2030.
If those subsidies work as intended, that is.
In the case of a new tax credit for clean hydrogen, a lot rides on that “if.” It could accelerate a critical climate solution that could drive down greenhouse gas emissions in many sectors of the economy. Or it could underwrite a process that actually increases emissions. The outcome depends largely on accounting rules that the Treasury Department has yet to write.
“Getting this right is critical to making this credit work,” Nathan Iyer, a senior policy associate at the clean energy…