“Despots, oligarchs, fruitcakes and invaders:” Why Andrew Forrest wants to stop burning fossil fuels

Iron ore billionaire and green energy evangelist Andrew Forrest has ramped up his campaign to stop rich miners pocketing billions from Australia’s now controversial diesel fuel rebate, and argued his company will serve as a “prototype” for the nation to stop burning fossil fuels.

Forrest has set a goal of reaching “real zero” emissions at the giant iron ore mining operations operated by Fortescue, which means replacing 700 million litres of diesel burned each year for trucks and mining equipment, as well as a lot of gas burned for power generation.

The target date for “real zero” is 2030, but Forrest says the grid supplying his mines will be effectively 100 per cent renewable in two years, and will just be waiting for the last of the more than 300 huge 240-tonne electric haul trucks to be delivered to meet that target.

Forrest is angry about two policy settings that are slowing and distorting the transition to green energy – the “net zero” targets included in the Paris climate treaty at the insistence of the fossil fuel industry, and which rely on dodgy offsets, and the diesel fuel rebate which is putting billions back into the pockets of big miners every year.

“It’s absurd politics,” Forrest said at the Smart Energy 2026 conference in Sydney on Wednesday. “We have a situation to switch off diesel so there is more for mums and dads, and there is a rebate that goes to companies that least need it.”

Forrest says the 700 million litres Fortescue burns each year costs $1.2 billion annually and every $1 a litre price rise costs it $700 million. He expects a quick return from the $US6.2 billion he is spending to eliminate it (along with hefty gas bill).

He argues that other mining companies could, and should, do the same, but are happy to pocket the rebate because it provides no incentive to electrify, despite burning 9.5 billion of litre a year, 90 per cent of which is imported.

According to Forrest, $4.5 billion of diesel fuel rebates goes to the mining industry each year, and it has already totalled $55 billion since it was introduced by a “pork barrelling” John Howard in 2006. By 2030, the total pocketed by mining will be $83 billion, and the grand total of rebates will be $184 billion.

“It’s unsustainable. We are being held hostage by diesel, and the rebate scheme,” Forrest said, adding that

Fortescue last month launched a national advertising campaign arguing against diesel fuel rebates for big miners – it wants any rebates capped at $50 million if not eliminated entirely.

A new survey, funded by Fortescue, released on Wednesday found overwhelming support for cancelling the rebate, and found that many people did not realise it sent so much money back to mining companies.

See: Survey finds most Australians support fuel tax credit cap, and didn’t know miners pocketed so many billions

Forrest noted that BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue alone received $1.35 billion in diesel rebates last year, but had combined revenue of $34.5 billion.

“It’s a joke,” he said.

“They don’t want to lose that. And that’s what is …. so troglodyte about this policy that, on the one hand, we’re saying to the mine industry, innovate for us, go green for us, show us the new technology. But by the way, if you do, we’re going to you’ll lose billions in free money.”

Forrest also criticised net zero as a concept because it means the companies could do very little and simply buy offsets instead of actually cutting emissions.

“I’ve no time for net zero. It got jammed into the Paris agreement by fossil fuel lobby. You don’t have to do anything,” he said, adding that five out six major studies showed they made no difference and there was a question market from the sixth.

“I don’t want to run a company, and we should not run the country, and we should not run the world on a fake credit system.”

Forrest meanwhile, says Fortescue is acting as a live “prototype” for the rest of the country in the transition to green energy, both for power generation and for transport.

“We’re having a proper crack,” he said, pointing out that Fortescue is building 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar, 800 MW of wind, and around 5 gigawatt hours of battery storage to power its grid with renewables only.

It is also investing in the electric haul trucks, electric excavators and drilling machines, and electric battery locomotives.

According to Forrest, Fortescue is already generating 300,000 megawatt hours of green energy a year, or 22 per cent of its electricity use and 25 per cent of its processing plant power requirements. On December 27, solar met all of its hematite plant demand.

As an example of the new technologies being developed, Forest cited the example of Fortescue’s newly developed AI-based grid demand management system that was able to intervene and hold the grid together through the use of battery inverters, and not spinning machines.

He quoted his grid operations manager, Glen Carruthers, as saying: “The grid healed itself in front of my eyes. For most of my 35-year career as a power systems engineer I thought this was impossible.”

Forrest said real zero will mean lower costs, less emissions, but mostly less imports and less control by the fossil fuel industry and a tool of geopolitical tensions.

“It means big companies from all across Australia don’t complain about fruitcakes, despots, oligarchs and invaders, who don’t care for your company, who don’t care for your shareholders, who don’t care for the moms and dads of our country.”

Forrest has also unveiled plans to spend nearly $1 billion on a separate green grid to meet growing demand for readily scaleable, low-cost green energy for big energy users such as data centres and green iron. The first iteration will supply 200 MW of green power, but Forrest says that the potential demand is 10 times bigger.

“Companies around the world will come to wherever the green and cheap energy is. We can see it concretely there for several gigawatts, and … I think we’ll be expanding it. We won’t be regretting it.”

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