Energy giants’ lobbying fuels the rise of hydrogen
Shell and BP want the controversial gas in families’ boilers. They’re pushing hard. By John Collingridge
The Sunday Times
EXTRACTS
Few parts of the UK have attracted as much government attention in recent months as northeast England. Although Conservative mayor Ben Houchen is favourite to win Thursday’s Tees Valley mayoral election, ministers have left nothing to chance.
The 34-year-old has hosted visits from Boris Johnson, chancellor Rishi Sunak and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. Nearby Hartlepool, where the Tories’ Jill Mortimer is the bookies’ favourite to grab the seat from Labour in this week’s by-election, has received a similar love-bombing.
Houchen’s campaign has had a distinctly green tinge. He has campaigned on a ticket of clean industrial rebirth in an area ravaged by the closures of steel and chemicals works.
Hydrogen has been at its heart — an element that in just a few years has propelled into the mainstream.
Huge vested interests lie behind the rise of hydrogen: oil giants such as Shell, BP and Norway’s Equinor have staked their futures on natural gas as a less-polluting alternative to oil.
Shell did so in 2015 with its £47 billion takeover of BG, the rump of privatised British Gas. But these bold bets have sourced amid a backlash against fossil fuels of all types, led by the Extinction Rebellion movement…
Now the oil majors hope that by stripping the carbon from their methane to create hydrogen, they can create a market for its remains.
The all-party group on hydrogen is funded by Shell, Cadent, Scotia Gas Networks as well as…
