Tory donor’s taxpayer-backed scheme to develop hydrogen fuel cell buses branded 'bonkers'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Tory donor’s taxpayer-backed scheme to develop hydrogen fuel cell buses has been branded “bonkers” by a leading Scottish chemical engineer.

Jo Bamford’s Wrightbus was handed an £11.2 million grant from the UK Government to pioneer the “green” fuel cell vehicles in March.Another of his firms, Ryze Hydrogen, is facilitating a £45million distribution hub planned for South Lanarkshire and has signed a deal to import shipping tankers of the gas from Australia.University of Aberdeen professor of chemical engineering Tom Baxter said: “Hydrogen is being touted as a silver bullet for reaching net zero emissions - in all my years working I have never seen a lobbying operation like it to sell an idea to politicians that just doesn’t make sense.“The science just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, the idea of importing hydrogen from Australia for example is bonkers.”Jo Bamford - son of JCB billionaire Lord Bamford - is behind the world’s first double-decker powered by the gas and Wrightbus has won multi-million pound publicly funded contracts to supply vehicles across the UK.The Scottish Government also announced plans in November to invest £100million in hydrogen schemes which are being touted as a major solution to the climate crisis.Baxter, who has over 40 years experience working with some of the world’s leading chemical companies, and in academia, added: “Fossil companies like it because hydrogen will be derived from fossil fuels for the next decade or more.“And the utility companies also like it as they’ll be able to sell more power thanks to hydrogen inefficiencies.“Hydrogen is being pushed in the UK by various highly influential groups - these include an advisory council jointly chaired by the government and Shell, an industry