i have a friend whose a blues man and has ben in hydrogen research and startups since the late 80s. i don’t need to google Ampol and battery charging or Ampol and H₂ to know what they are up to and why they are doing it.

the EV charging stuff is <0.001% of their business. sorry but that’s the reality and it will remain the reality for a decade that it’s less than 1% of their gross income. most EV charging will be done at home or place of business or place of stopping (malls etc) in that order. and there’s almost no bucks in it cf fossil fuel distribution and retail for that reason and some other laws of physics reasons.

the Ampol EV strategy is fine, i wouldn’t even say welcome bc this industry, oil and gas has collectively spent over a billion dollars on misinformation and propoganda campaigns. it’s deliberately funded the climate denial industry for 30+ years. so no points from me doing some EV charging.

it’s nothing more greenwashing of their brand (just got a make over to BTW) how ever earnest and sincere their EV charging team may be. that’s just a fact.

as for H₂, it’s not going to have any role in passenger vehicle transportation industry. the economics are screwed, again by laws of physics limitations on the H₂ fuel cycle. it will have important niche roles in industry, as a reductant in iron ore → iron metal processing (see the recent launch of Superpower Institute and NPC speech by Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims for a gentle, nontechnical introduction). but even those roles may be displaced in time with other more direct ways to produce heat and reduce elements from their oxidation compounds found in ore bodies (Direct reduction in a process like electrolysis in the case of iron, aluminium and silicon etc)

but believe me, the Blues are lending our good name to greenwash a player in an industry that no kids wanna work in when they grow up. that no graduate engineers and other graduates want to work in any more. even the obscene salaries and money to be made is not convincing the kids, they voting with their feet in growing numbers and this is what this is all about. Greenwash (and teenwash) from start to finish. i know because this is my special subject. and i know a lot of people who could run a scathing campaign on it. a campaign that would be easily distracting enough to slam the window shut for a few years.

that’s the last thing i want to see. i want to see leadership on this issue from they club leaders.

it’s worse than running anti-gambling ads by Vossy* and big H* and then taking Sportsbet or an online casino as a sponsor to my mind. there will come a day when AFL matches will be cancelled and/or rescheduled due to extreme heat or cyclonic winds and hail. at the senior AFL level not just remote regional club level. and that’s the least concerning aspect of climate emergency i can think of.

yet we happily take money from an industry that spent large on the climate denial industry for decades. as in Billions just through Homeland Institute and the Koch brothers alone. not to mention the way they undermined democracy at every point they could from citizens united SC appeal to congressmen and women and APH representatives being their paid representatives in all political parties except the Greens. it’s disgusting.

i appreciate many on this forum won’t understand this point of view given you working lives and conservative political allégeances which require tribal allégeance to climate denial or at least allégeance to “incremental progress is enough” and “green growth” of attitudes. well all i can say is watch this space bc the major of people have moved on from that hogwash. .


* which i love btw and was both surprised and impressed with, even though AFL revenue streams from from gambling industry advertising (and there’s so much of it!) pays there salaries)


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heck i’ve even heard that most clubs tolerate women and LBGTI+ folks in the club rooms these days. amazing how things change isn’t it?