The world is surely going to end
The controversy over who gets what in the final washup of the emissions trading scheme continues, with much doom and gloom being forecast for the power industry.
Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, the peak business lobby group on climate change says that the Rudd Government’s allocation of just 20 per cent of emissions trading permits as compensation to so-called trade-exposed industries is “unsubstantiated and arbitrary”, going so far as to claim it’s in breach of Labor’s election commitments. This would seem rather extraordinary when such detail as this hadn’t been released prior to the election.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 15 banks, investors and analysts of the electricity sector found most financiers were still willing to lend to the sector, but were now charging a risk premium because of the current uncertainty over the industry’s treatment under an emissions trading scheme from 2010. So the sooner that the scheme is introduced, the better for all concerned.
On the other hand, the coal miners’ union has hit out at its own industry, calling on the Federal Government to deny coal-fired electricity plants “palliative care” in the form of compensation as it tackles climate change. Now that’s refreshing.
