Watchdog rules “clean gas” claims from Gina Rinehart company are false, misleading

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting has earned a slap on the wrist from Australia’s advertising watchdog for greenwashing gas, by making “false, misleading and not substantiated claims” that the fossil fuel is “clean.”

The finding by industry-run regulatory body Ad Standards was over a recruitment ad in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Weekend Australian in October 2024, in which Hancock asserted “Our clean gas keeps the lights, and factories, hospitals, and shops open from Tokyo to Toowoomba.”

Ad Standards said the miner broke its new environment code because the use of the term “clean gas” without any evidence to back it up was misleading.

“The majority of the Panel considered that most members of the community would understand ‘clean’ in combination with an energy source to mean that the energy source does not produce emissions or have a negative impact on the environment,” the community panel’s final decision read. 

“The Panel considered that the advertiser had provided information on why gas is cleaner than other energy sources, and not why it is completely clean.

“Without further disclaimers explaining the limitations of the word “clean” in this context, the advertisement was misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive.”

The outcome of the decision was a request for the ad to be taken down, which has already happened. 

The ad was picked up by climate advocacy group Comms Declare, which took the mining company to Ad Standards for greenwashing.

Ad Standards released its new code against greenwashing in late 2024, requiring green claims to be evidence-based, reasonable, and true, but the organisation has little teeth to do more than request ads be removed.

“We’re thrilled that greenwashing by climate polluters has finally been taken seriously,” Comms Declare founder Belinda Noble said in a statement. 

“Gas is a flammable, toxic and polluting fossil fuel. It is not clean, green or renewable and we hope this is the beginning of the end of flagrant gas industry greenwashing.”

Clean, or just less dirty?

Comms Declare said the “clean gas” claim was aimed at potential employees who could be misled into thinking that gas didn’t create an environmental emissions problem. 

Although the standards body decided the ad had broken its rules, not all of the members agreed. 

The Ad Standards’ case report said some members thought Hancock Prospecting had explained enough as to why gas could be considered clean, while others suggested Australians were educated enough to not be misled.

Hancock Prospecting argued that gas is cleaner than coal in terms of emissions and produces fewer toxic byproducts. 

But this claim, which has long been used to support gas power as a bridge between coal and renewable energy, may no longer be entirely backed by science.

LNG, the liquefied version of gas, can produce up to 33 per cent more emissions than coal, said a Cornell University paper last year.

A comparison of life cycle emissions over a 20 year period led to a figure of 160 g CO2-equivalent/MJ for LNG versus 120 g CO2-equivalent/MJ for coal.

That was largely due to methane, which is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and the energy intensity of converting gas to and from LNG, and transporting it.

This US-based paper did not take in account Australia’s methane-heavy coal mines, though, with those in New South Wales (NSW) having a carbon footprint higher than France.

According to disclosure forms lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hancock Prospecting owns slightly more than $US150 million of stock in a number of US energy and gas companies, including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, EQT Group, Antero Resources and Occidental Petroleum.