Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
After a big splash four years ago and little publicity since, Woodside has teamed up with Japanese partners to promote a smaller, later, and dirtier hydrogen plant.
The cost of storing CO2 produced when hydrogen is made from coal or gas will likely make blue hydrogen uncompetitive against green hydrogen made with renewable electricity, ANU scientists conclude.
