Hydrogen, the clean green energy fuel

Gladstone is determined to make a go of the opportunity provided by the state government and so we will see how it can address these five basic challenges.

Here are two concluding thoughts. First, the public relations campaign should contain a reference to "national security". If you want to get attention to a campaign it is useful to add "security" to the noun (as in "water security", "food security" and "welfare security").

Second, talk of the hydrogen economy seems far-fetched. But imagine if you were reading in this 1883 and I had just returned from Germany where engineers were working on "horseless carriages". You would not be interested in replacing your horse. Australia has plenty of horses, there is a lot of fuel (hay) for them, and they can refuel themselves while you are at home or in a meeting. Besides a horse can gallop up the side of a hill and a horseless carriage could not.

In fact, the global horse population peaked by 1920 and it has been downhill for them since then. Now most Australians cannot imagine ever being without an oil-driven "horseless carriage".

This is the paradigm shift we need to create to prepare Australians for the hydrogen economy.