Iron ore billionaire and green energy evangelist Andrew Forrest has taken another pot shot at federal energy minister Angus Taylor, continuing the feud between the two over the future of Australia’s fossil fuel and renewable hydrogen industries.
“What’s the difference between Angus Taylor and God? Well, God doesn’t think he is Angus Taylor,” Forrest told Nine’s 60 Minutes TV program in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Forrest has been one of the very few big business people prepared to take on Taylor, in particular, and the federal government in general about their support for fossil fuels, and their promotion of “clean coal”, carbon capture and storage and fossil fuel hydrogen.
In February, Forrest launched a double-page broadside against the federal government’s energy green-washing, taking out advertisements in major Australian papers to make clear what is – and isn’t – clean hydrogen.
Forrest said then, as he does now, that only green hydrogen – made from renewable energy – can truly be called “clean.”
“All other types are made from fossil fuels such as coal and gas,” the notices said. “Blue hydrogen’s greenhouse gas footprint can be 20% larger than burning natural gas or coal for heat. IT IS NOT CLEAN.”
The 60 Minutes program included interviews with both Forrest and software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, who are working together on the massive Sun Cable project, the world’s biggest solar and battery plant, and other major plans to accelerate the switch to green energy.
Forrest, through Fortescue Future Industries, wants to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, a plan that would likely involve some 200GW of new renewable capacity, much of it in Australia.
Cannon-Brookes earlier this year joined up with global asset manager Brookfield to launch an audacious bid for AGL to try and fast track the closure of its remaining coal fired generators, also by 2030.
Forrest also thought that the bid for AGL was a good idea, but Taylor clearly opposed it, flagging various regulatory hurdles.
Taylor was also clearly upset about the early closure of Origin’s Eraring coal generator in NSW, the biggest in the country, and because he was deliberately excluded from discussions leading up to the decision.
Taylor declined an interview with 60 Minutes because, according to the program, his office had told them “he wasn’t well enough briefed on the issue.”
Deputy energy minister Tim Wilson did talk to the program. “They’re absolutely trying to be a part of the confronting and environmental challenge while making a buck,” he said. “They’ll always be billionaires that want to make more profits funded from your taxes.”
“It was surprising that a Liberal coalition government would have had someone come to Australia prepared to spend over more than $20 billion and the government was saying go away,” the Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood observed.
“It was this bizarre in my view that this was the way it played out. I think it’s fundamentally because we have a view that we have achieved electoral success by pushing back on climate change. And we’ve actually done that.”
