Latest news with #HydrogenProductionTaxIncentive
Sky News AU
20-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Former party president Michael Kroger slams Labor government's green hydrogen plan as ‘waste' of billions of taxpayer dollars
Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger has fiercely scorned the Labor government's green hydrogen plan as a 'waste' of billions of taxpayer dollars. A Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive is included in Labor's net-zero plans as part of its Future Made in Australia Act, and more than $6.5 billion will go towards the scheme. It is set to provide $2 per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced between 2027-28 and 2039-40. Mr Kroger and former Labor Senator Stephen Conroy joined Sky News host Andrew Bolt on Monday night, where the pair were asked about whether the Opposition should be doing more to push back against the government's 'green hydrogen dream'. 'The nuclear power was a good cover that kept everybody, Nationals and Liberals, in the same cart, and until the opposition can fundamentally resolve the direction they want to go, they're going to not be able to prosecute this case,' the former Labor Senator said. Mr Kroger meanwhile slammed the country's investment into green hydrogen, which he said required an 'enormous amount' of water, land and regulation to get up and running. 'It's very expensive and no one's buying it in Australia,' Mr Kroger said. He said the pursuit of green hydrogen over other energy sources should be a matter for the private sector rather than the government. 'We used to have a thing in Australia that governments shouldn't pick winners,' Mr Kroger said. Since coming to power in 2022, he said the government's mentality had been that they can 'fix everything'. 'Let's wait and see green hydrogen develop to commercial levels around the world and save our money, and then we can just copy them rather than waste billions of dollars of the Australian government's money, where potentially this may not work at commercial scale,' he said. The government's renewables agenda has already faced criticism across the sector, with leading energy and environmental experts slamming Energy Minister Chris Bowen's plans. In an article published by The Australian last week, Mr Bowen had stated there had not been much evidence to support the 'noise' against renewables. However, Centre for Independent Studies energy program director Aidan Morrison claimed 'there's just not a chance' the Energy Minister's renewable energy agenda could be implemented according to Labor's 2050 timeline. 'It's like we're kicking around ice on the deck of the Titanic thinking: 'Oh, that was fun to brush up against that'. We haven't taken seriously how badly things are shaping up' Mr Morrison told Sky News last week. Meanwhile, one of Australia's largest green hydrogen backer, metal mining giant Fortescue, slashed about 90 jobs working on the energy source last week. The move sparked further criticism from Mr Morrison, who told that green hydrogen was 'hopelessly impractical" as an alternative fuel. 'It's extremely difficult to store and move. There's limited demand for hydrogen as a chemical feedstock, which is economically met by methane reformation from coal or gas,' Mr Morrison said.
Sky News AU
14-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Fortescue axes 90 green hydrogen jobs as Centre for Independent Studies' Aidan Morrison slams 'hopelessly impractical' energy source
Australia's largest green hydrogen backer has axed about 90 jobs working on the energy source, sparking criticism there is "no future" for the energy source as it is "hopelessly impractical" as an alternative fuel. Metal mining giant Fortescue, spearheaded by green hydrogen promoter Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, on Tuesday laid off staff members who worked on hydrogen projects across the nation. The workers at Fortescue's hydrogen unit in Western Australia and its electrolyser facility, where hydrogen is separated from water to produce green energy, in Queensland were offered redundances or redeployment within the company. Fortescue's move sparked criticism from the Centre for Independent Studies' energy director Aidan Morrison who said efforts to prop up the energy source, many which are driven by the Albanese government, were futile. "This is what it looks like to see a concerted effort at consensus-farming slowly getting unwound: paper projects being quietly scrunched up and binned at politically convenient moments,' Mr Morrison told 'Green hydrogen never was a thing. It won't be in the future either. It was built on hopeful hand-waving from the outset. 'It's hopelessly impractical as an alternative fuel. It's extremely difficult to store and move. There's limited demand for hydrogen as a chemical feedstock, which is economically met by methane reformation from coal or gas. 'There's no evidence that demand at the volumes that renewables enthusiasts have been spruiking will emerge and there's no way that wind and solar could meet that demand at a reasonable price if it did." A Fortescue spokesperson said the mining giant was focused on developing a green iron industry in Australia with 'green hydrogen playing a critical part in making it a reality'. 'To ensure we can produce the large amounts of green hydrogen we need to make green iron, we are refocusing our efforts into the research and development of new technologies that will deliver green molecules at scale, efficiently and cost-effectively,' the spokesperson said. 'Fortescue has rapidly advanced its electrolyser technology capabilities. The science has now evolved, and we are moving with it.' It is understood the sackings come as Fortescue is looking to its Gladstone, Queensland, facility - called PEM50 - for the research and development efforts. The recent sackings come after Fortescue revealed 700 redundancies in July 2024 in a sweeping restructure of the company that consolidated its mining and energy arms into one division. Mr Forrest has spent years promoting the benefits of green hydrogen, with the company originally planning on producing 15 million tonnes per year by 2030. Labor's net-zero plans include a Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive as part of its Future Made in Australia Act. More than $6.5 billion will go toward the scheme, which provides $2 per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced between 2027-28 and 2039-40. The policy came a year after Labor announced $2b towards its Hydrogen Headstart program, which looked to invest in large scale hydrogen projects.
