This week, iron-ore billionaire-turned green energy heavyweight Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest launched a double-page ad spread in the Daily Telegraph and Australian Financial Review reminding readers that green hydrogen is the only form of hydrogen – the touted ‘fuel of the future’ – that is truly ‘clean’.
“Only green hydrogen is clean hydrogen,” the advertisement reads. “All other types are made from fossil fuels such as coal or gas.”
In its layout and colour scheme, the ad mimics a Morrison government campaign featuring a picture of a truck carrying hydrogen and declaring, “a clean hydrogen industry is part of our plan to reach net zero by 2050.”
The ad is of course, at least in part, a canny business move for a man who’s investing heavily in a particular hydrogen-based future. But from an environmental perspective, it’s also been seen as a clear challenge to federal energy minister Angus Taylor, who in recent weeks has spruiked what many deem ‘unclean’ hydrogen milestones as wins for the clean hydrogen economy.
Those milestones include the first ever purpose-built liquid hydrogen transport ship, Suiso Frontier, which landed in Australia in January for its first shipment of ‘blue’ hydrogen, for delivery to Japan.