Current Climate brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability every Monday. Sign up to get it in your inbox.gettyClean hydrogen is vital to help curb carbon emissions from dirty industrial processes like making steel and fertilizer. So in 2022, the Biden Administration created a valuable new credit for hydrogen thats made without generating lots of additional greenhouse gases, worth up to $3 a kilogram. But its taken a long time to determine exactly what form of hydrogen is clean enough to receive the credit. With just a couple of weeks left until the start of Trump 2.0, the Treasury Department finally unveiled its guidelines for the so-called 45V credit on Jan. 3 and, for the most part, both hydrogen producers and environmentalists are pleased.Among final tweaks to initial guidelines issued in 2023, companies producing hydrogen with electrolyzers that split the elemental gas from water with renewable electricity will have more flexibility to use existing wind, solar or hydroelectric systems as their power source rather than having to rely on completely new systems and over the hours in which theyre used (contentious sticking points referred to as incrementality and matching). Older nuclear power plants slated for closure can also get the credit if they stay open longer to produce carbon-free hydrogen. Additionally, the rules create opportunities to tap landfill methane as a source of hydrogen production if that helps prevent the greenhouse gas from getting into the atmosphere. Exactly how the clean hydrogen program will work under the oil- and gas-centric Trump Administration remains to be seen.The final rules mark significant progress, with notable revisions to the incrementality requirement for certain nuclear power facilities and hydrogen projects in states with clean energy policies, said Andy Marsh, CEO of PlugPower. While these updates are encouraging, we look forward to collaborating with the new administration to refine the regulations in a way that aligns with congressional intent, supports their goal of reducing overregulation, and ensures national energy security.The Big ReadGUERIN BLASK FOR FORBESThis Founder Created Tights Made From Bulletproof Vest Materials. Next Up: Sustainable SwimsuitsBack in 2017, Katherine Homuth, a young Canadian tech entrepreneur, was on the hunt for a material for long-lasting sheer tights that would survive the rips, snags and runs that normally plague them. She ordered dozens of different fibers, each time wrapping them around her fingers and trying to pull them apart and every time she did so the material broke. Finally, she discovered a material that was pretty much indestructible, whatever she tried: ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, which is used in bulletproof vests because of its dense structure.She called distributors dozens of times, begging them to send it to her. I finally got one spool of fiber and it cost $2,000, she said. I shipped it over to a factory in China, and I got an angry note back that we ended up breaking their machine. It choked on the fiber.From that inauspicious beginning, Homuth, 34, has built a substantial business in non-rip sheer tights that she claims can last up to 10 times as long as a traditional pair, billions of which typically end up in landfills. A Forbes 30 Under 30 list alum, Homuth expects to bring in $30 million in revenue for 2024. The previous year, Sheertexs classic sheer tights were the number one selling pair of tights in the U.S. measured by dollars, she said. But growing a consumer business is hard, and revenue is down from $45 million in 2023 as she shifted the business from largely direct-to-consumer sales on her website to signing up retailers like H&M, Costco and QVC. She expects it to rebound to more than $70 million in 2025.Now SRTX, the company behind the Sheertex brand, is working on going beyond tights into other materials, including a water-repellant material thats free of toxic forever chemicals, or PFAS, which for years have been used in everything from rain jackets to hiking boots. The move would, she hopes, transform SRTX from a consumer-products business to a sustainable materials one. We want to be the DuPont of the sustainability industry, Homuth said.Read more here.Hot TopicElectric HydrogenBeth Deane, chief legal officer for electrolyzer maker Electric Hydrogen, on new federal rules for clean hydrogenWhats the significance of finally having federal guidelines for the clean hydrogen credit?First and foremost, were grateful that we have a final 45V rule because it breaks the logjam that we've been in for the last two years of not having guidance in place. I think that there are enough flexibilities to address stakeholder concerns in this final rule that we are optimistic that it will have durability with the new Trump administration. I think its important that the rule has a pathway for durability because if it were subject to the Congressional Review Act, it could take a long time to get a new rule in place. I think that the stakeholders will recognize that and that will have an impact on how its treated.What does it mean for Electric Hydrogen specifically?We sell electrolyzer plants, which at the end of the day is a full chemical plant delivered prefabricated to our customers. It's really our customers that determine what the energy source is going to be for their project. So we're available and able to provide electrolytic solutions to any number of electricity input options.We are a company that exists almost solely to bring down the cost of electrolytic hydrogen. We've already taken out about 50% of the costs. So anything that helps the industry build more projects will help the manufacturing side learn faster and bring down the cost faster.Trump hasnt discussed hydrogen. Do you think his administration will stick with the push for low-carbon hydrogen?I don't have a crystal ball, so what I say is based on limited information. Hydrogen is an industry that has many different ways to deliver the resource. That can be done through electrolytic hydrogen. It can be done through what people refer to as blue hydrogen, with carbon capture. It has many different varieties. Anything that helps the overall industry has broader support almost by definition because there are different kinds of stakeholders that produce all those different kinds of hydrogen. One thing that makes us optimistic is the fact that 45V contains opportunities for a large variety of hydrogen production approaches and therefore is more likely to elicit bipartisan support.What Else Were ReadingU.S. EV sales get year-end boost from Trumps threat to end tax creditsTesla rival Rivians stock races to best day everJimmy Carter tried to fix the planet. The oil industry fought backChart: Geothermal has vast potential to meet the worlds power needsHochul signs law that penalizes companies for greenhouse gas emissionsHow Billie Eilish and Coldplay make their concerts sustainableGlobal sustainable bond sales reach $1 trillion for the second timeShipping goes back to the future with sailsU.S. takes steps to protect Nevadas Ruby Mountains from energy developmentTrump must learn the nation needs renewables backed up by natural gasFor More Sustainability Coverage, Click Here.More From Forbes