Australian Mining Billionaire Touts A Green Revolution In U.S. Coal Country — With Skepticism Trailing Close Behind

Australian Mining Billionaire Touts A Green Revolution In U.S. Coal Country — With Skepticism Trailing Close Behind

Andrew Forrest travels the globe trying to persuade leaders of industry and politics — and rank-and-file workers — that despite his polluting past he’s the man to champion green hydrogen as the clean fuel of the future.

More than a couple of the dozen or so coal-plant workers gathered at West Virginia’s Pleasants Power Station in April to hear Andrew Forrest push his green hydrogen agenda rolled their eyes as he spoke. “I believe this coal-fired power station has a huge future,” the Australian mining billionaire told them. The employees could be forgiven for their skepticism. Just weeks before, they learned their plant, surrounded by other closures throughout coal country, would be the latest to shut down.

Forrest’s message was heartfelt, contrarian and a bit pie in the sky. In West Virginia, the second-largest coal-producing region in the U.S., Forrest told the workers that 22 of the state’s 26 coal-powered plants could be converted to green hydrogen plants. Tell your family and friends, he said. Manufacturing zero-emission hydrogen would need boilermakers, carpenters and welders in this very spot. And not only them, but their children and grandchildren, who would help power America with a new energy source that when unleashed releases nothing