That is a huge investment in infrastructure to deliver a product with an uncertain future, and not just because carbon emissions must be reduced.

The spread of reverse-cycle air conditioners has removed the need for gas for heating, and a growing body of evidence that burning gas in the kitchen is dangerous makes induction cooktops more desirable. That leaves hot water as the major use for gas in the home, but heat pumps are beginning to nibble at that market.

Hydrogen blending is just greenwashing in the hope that a climate-friendly veneer will slow the destruction of the value of ATCO’s WA network.

Blending was not the only hydrogen announcement at the ceremony attended by WA Premier Mark McGowan, and the credibility did not improve.

ATCO also announced a hydrogen refuelling station at their Jandakot base for 16 hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirais owned by ATCO and Fortescue Future Industries.

The Mirai is quite a vehicle, capturing more than half the US market for hydrogen cars in the three months to October 2022. Unfortunately, that only amounted to 79 sales in a country that buys a million cars a month.

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Hydrogen cars were once thought likely to compete with battery-powered cars with longer range and quicker charging. They are still ahead in these areas, but the gap narrows every year, and the inherent greater complexity and cost of hydrogen cars will not disappear.

Fortescue chair Andrew Forrest who once sparred with Tesla founder Elon Musk about the merits of hydrogen versus electric vehicles said the refuelling announcement was “the little acorn, out of which huge oak trees will grow.”

WA may have a bright future in the hydrogen industry, but it will not be based on these stunted saplings.

It would be hard to think of two more pointless initiatives to reduce WA’s emissions and prepare the state’s economy for the future.

However, don’t underestimate companies trying to eke a few more years of returns out of doomed investments. There will be more mad schemes to come.

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