The Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG) share price is on the rise during early afternoon trade on Tuesday.
It comes after Fortescue chair Andrew Forrest intensified his campaign against the federal government's promotion of coal-made hydrogen as 'clean energy'.
At the time of writing, the iron ore producer's shares are up 3.2% to $22.22 apiece.
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Fortescue amplifies 'clean energy' campaign
Making headlines today, Forrest took out a full-page colour advert in the Australian Financial Review challenging the federal government's clean energy claims.
In the statement, Forrest rejected the Morisson government's assertion that coal and gas-generated hydrogen can be billed as 'clean'.
Forrest believes the term 'clean hydrogen' should be swapped for 'green hydrogen', which is made from renewable energy.
It's worth noting the mining giant's green offshoot Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) is focused on producing renewable hydrogen.
The company is aiming to generate 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030.
Last week, the world's first liquefied hydrogen tanker, the 116-metre Suiso Frontier, picked up coal-made hydrogen from Victoria's La Trobe Valley.
The ship successfully loaded the hydrogen bound for Japan. The shipment is part of a $500 million pilot project hosted by AGL Energy Ltd (ASX: AGL)'s Loy Yang A brown coal-fired power station to produce hydrogen for Japanese giant Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Brown coal, considered the dirtiest of its group, along with gas, produces emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Following the ship's departure, Forrest commented that it should not be an opportunity to "pretend brown hydrogen is exporting green energy to the world".
In 2021, FFI took on Australia's biggest oil and gas companies over gas-produced hydrogen not being acceptable as 'clean energy'. A senior executive from FFI spoke out saying that the so-called 'blue hydrogen' depends on carbon capture or offsets.
In addition, former prime minister and current FFI chair Malcolm Turnbull called coal and gas-produced hydrogen 'a con'.
He also said that carbon capture storage (CSS) is a 'no goer', citing it's yet to reach commercial-scale suitable for reducing emissions.
Fortescue share price summary
Up until the end of July, the Fortescue share price was enjoying strong gains, hitting an all-time high of $26.58. That all came crashing down in the following months with the company's shares touching a low of $13.90 in early October.
Since then, Fortescue shares have rebounded to around the halfway levels achieved in the first half of 2021.
On valuation metrics, Fortescue commands a market capitalisation of roughly $68 billion and has approximately 3.08 billion shares on issue.
