From Hype to Headwinds: What's Next for U.S. Clean Hydrogen?

From Hype to Headwinds: What's Next for U.S. Clean Hydrogen?

From Sci on the Fly by AAAS S&T Policy Fellows

October 9, 2025 · 47 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of U.S. policies on the clean hydrogen industry and its uncertain future.

Clean hydrogen is one of many key components of the path to decarbonization , with emissions - intensive hydrogen currently used in several industrial sectors. Over the past few years, the Biden Administration and Congress had made massive investments into accelerating nationwide growth of a clean hydrogen industry and many countrie s around the world were following suit to keep up with U.S. innovation. However, since the start of the second Trump Administration, the future is uncertain for many of these policy incentives, and project developers and investors are unsure how to respond . In this episode of Sci on the Fly, current AAAS STPF Executive Branch Fellow Angela Cleri speaks with STPF alumna Rachel Starr, a current Senior U.S. Policy Manager on Hydrogen and Transportation Decarbonization at Clean Air Task Force, about how the clean hydrogen industry has been shaped by these policies and what the future looks like. This podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute…

People in this episode

Host: Angela Cleri

Guest: Rachel Starr

Topics covered

  • clean hydrogen
  • decarbonization
  • U.S. policy
  • energy

Keywords

  • Biden Administration
  • Trump Administration
  • investment
  • policy incentives

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Clean Air Task Force

Places: U.S.

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