US Geologic Hydrogen Takes Its First Regulatory Steps

Iowa and Minnesota clarify hydrogen’s legal footing as exploration grows, while Wyoming relies on interpretation and the sector remains in its infancy

18 Dec 2025

A quiet but consequential shift is taking place in how US regulators view geologic hydrogen. The industry is still pre-commercial, but a few early statutory moves are beginning to resolve a basic question that has slowed progress for years: does naturally occurring hydrogen even fit within existing law?

So far, the clearest answers are coming from the Midwest. Iowa and Minnesota have both amended their oil and gas statutes to broaden the definition of “gas.” The updated language explicitly includes naturally occurring, non-hydrocarbon gases such as hydrogen and helium.

These changes stop short of creating hydrogen-specific permitting systems. What they do offer is clarity. Regulators now have an unambiguous legal foundation to review hydrogen exploration using familiar authorities, rather than navigating a regulatory gray zone.

That distinction matters most at the earliest stage. Before these updates, companies evaluating subsurface hydrogen faced uncertainty over jurisdiction and permitting responsibility, complicating early conversations with state agencies. Clear definitions do not remove regulatory hurdles, but they do reduce ambiguity when projects are still on paper.

Wyoming illustrates a different path. Legal analysis suggests hydrogen can be treated as a form of gas under existing statutes. Yet there is little public guidance on how regulators are applying those provisions to geologic hydrogen in practice. The result is legal inclusion without a clearly articulated policy.

Industry activity reflects this uneven landscape. Companies such as Koloma are moving forward with exploration, backed by substantial funding and focused on geological assessment, data collection, and test well planning. The work is exploratory, aimed at confirming whether viable resources exist and how they behave underground.

Scientific efforts are also catching up. The US Geological Survey recently released the first continental-scale map of geologic hydrogen potential across the contiguous United States. It is a milestone for research, even if mapped potential does not translate into widespread drilling.

Together, these steps signal direction rather than speed. A handful of states are clarifying definitions, while exploration remains limited and cautious.

For an industry built on geology and long timelines, incremental clarity can still be decisive. As experience accumulates, today’s small legal shifts may determine whether geologic hydrogen ever moves beyond exploration.