EXCLUSIVE: 45V fight moves into agriculture

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing the Biden administration to open up hydrogen tax credits to biogas, Axios has learned. 

Why it matters: The question of what counts as "clean" hydrogen is a defining fight for the IRA. 

• The Biden administration has left open questions in its implementation about how it'll treat the growing "renewable" natural gas industry, which derives fuel from agricultural and landfill waste.

Driving the news: Lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill have signed onto a letter — obtained exclusively by Axios — asking the administration to let RNG created with animal manure qualify as a hydrogen feedstock under the 45V incentive.

• Signatories include Rep. Jim Costa, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and other ag state lawmakers.
• The lawmakers say the credit could "catalyze" investments in methane abatement by livestock operations.
• They also argue that "overly stringent time-matching requirements," a key sticking point in the debate about 45V, would disincentivize RNG.

Between the lines: The initial 45V guidance asks for comment on a series of questions about how to measure and model RNG emissions.

• Environmentalists are skeptical of claims that RNG is actually renewable.
• But the lawmakers' letter adds to calls from industry to expand RNG's horizons via the IRA's generous tax incentives.
• Notably, they call for "flexible use of a book-and-claim accounting," a system about which green groups are skeptical.