Recently Xstrata announced plans to cease smelting and refining copper in Queensland. Then Blue Scope Steel was forced to reduce production and shed workers. Now Rio has signaled the sale of its aluminium processing empire.
Next we can expect that a large coal fired electricity generator will be unable to repay its debts.
All of these unloved projects have one thing in common - all rely heavily on carbon fuels such as coal and gas.
Not one of these operations could survive if forced to use high cost and unreliable wind or solar power. And all are threatened by the toxic carbon tax.
The 74 green lemmings in Parliament have given us "certainty" – the certainty of capital flight and job losses.
Are we prepared for the new green future where jobless Australians survive from backyard veggie gardens, poaching kangaroos and wild pigs from carbon credit forests and cooking with biomass on a wood stove?
Of course we will enjoy pirate movies downloaded at the speed of light using the NBN (as long as the sun is shining or the wind blows).
Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition, has spent his life working in exploration, mining, farming, infrastructure, financial analysis and political commentary. He has worked for government departments, private companies and now works as a private contractor and farmer.
Viv has also been a guest writer for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Business Queensland and mining newspapers. He was awarded the “Australian Adam Smith Award for Services to the Free Society” in 1988, and has written widely on political, technical and economic subjects.
