Japan’s $2.35 billion proposal to produce hydrogen from brown coal (“Andrews talks down hydrogen plan”, March 10) is surely a large-scale exercise in modern-day alchemy.

Coal (carbon) is not hydrogen. Using the embedded energy of coal to create hydrogen with its consequent release of carbon dioxide, and then expending more energy to capture and then store that CO2, is borderline insanity, especially given the abundance of wind and solar in this country.