How much of the coal or natural gas would we have to burn to get the energy to separate the hydrogen?
It's easier to extract hydrogen from oil than from gas and coal. That's why these articles tend not to mention them. Typically the anti-hydrogen articles pick on loopy wind-energy strawmen. Almost uniformly they call people foolish, quote "engineers", and talk about "energy inputs" avoiding the "energy inputs" converting oil into gasoline, and transporting the heavy fuel to markets.