There's a law requiring ever-increasing amounts of biofuel to be mixed into everything. Biofuel has a ton of downsides that have great potential for a dust bowl 2.0, but that's another topic. US researchers have every motivation to develop non-constly alternatives by virtue of investors, even if the investment only gives them a small bubble like Arcimoto's minicars did. In fact, California is considering using hydrogen cars for parts of their network that don't go past the speeds hydrogen fuel can support.