Updated on
A year after Congress shortened the 45V window, US clean hydrogen has seen cancelled projects, scrapped DOE hubs and almost no new announcements.
In August 2025, Slashdot flagged a worrying turn for US clean hydrogen. Congress had cut the qualification window for the Biden-era tax credit by five years, so projects now need to be under construction by the end of 2027. Wood Mackenzie estimated that roughly 75% of proposed projects would miss it. A year on, it is worth checking how that played out.
The first casualties arrived within days. On 23 July 2025, Woodside cancelled H2OK, a 60-tonne-per-day project in Oklahoma. A day later, Fortescue said it would exit its 80 MW hub near Phoenix, which was expected to make 11,000 tonnes a year and qualify for the $3/kg 45V credit. It booked a $150 million pre-tax write-down. Notably, Fortescue had taken a final investment decision on that project in 2023, so this was no paper plan.
Why did it fail? The 45V deadline was only one factor. Woodside itself cited high costs and lower-than-expected demand. A subsidy cannot fix a market where nobody has agreed to buy the product.
Then came the federal side. On 2 October 2025, E&E News reported that DOE was cancelling more than 300 grants worth $7.5 billion, including the ARCHES hub in California and the Pacific Northwest hub, together worth over $2 billion. That removed the other pillar of support, direct funding for hubs, just as the tax credit window was closing.
The latest numbers are sobering. Latitude Media, citing Rhodium Group, put Q1 2026 investment at $400 million, up 27% on the previous quarter but down 11% on the year. Most of it went to two blue hydrogen plants, in Texas and Indiana, and a green plant in Utah nearing completion. No new projects were announced that quarter. Rhodium tallies $9 billion in cancellations since 2018 against about $5 billion actually invested, out of $63 billion announced.
Our read: the 2027 deadline did not kill a healthy industry, it exposed a fragile one. The pipeline was mostly announcements, and McKinsey's earlier figure, under 15% reaching final investment decision, already hinted at that. The projects that survive have a concrete buyer or a fossil-based route, not a credit and a hope.
Related articles from LaRebelión
Apple tightens full-disk access to rein in AI agents
OpenAI probes more possible AI hacking incidents after the Hugging Face breach
OpenAI Reports Rogue AI Agents Affecting Over 100 OrganizationsOriginal source: Slashdot
Produced with AI support and reviewed by the newsroom