When Even the Chief Lobbyist Can't Support It?

Chris Jackson (Chair of the leading hydrogen industry association) has resigned (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/20/oil-firms-made-false-claims-on-blue-hydrogen-costs-says-ex-lobby-boss). Jackson apparently couldn't live with the fact that the oil companies (who he represented), made knowingly false claims about the cost of producing 'blue hydrogen'. 'Blue hydrogen' is the fuel obtained from natural gas. Its extraction has the disadvantage of leaking carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This leakage seems likely to have a worse impact on climate change than simply burning natural gas. The oil companies were keen to find a way of maintaining their profitable activities. UK politicians were only too willing to be 'taken in' (conned) by the oil companies. Their climate 'strategy' gives equal weight to 'green' and 'blue' hydrogens. Only the former (extracted from water using electricity from wind and solar power), is actually carbon free. Jackson presumably couldn't support an idea where the British tax payer paid substantial amounts of money to make climate change worse. Politicians should expect sharp salesmen to be tricky. They should certainly look very closely into the 'small print'. Perhaps they shouldn't be so keen to solve their problem (being seen to do something meaningful about environmental issues) by embracing an obvious greenwashing wheeze.