Hobbling the Competition

Cheap reliable coal-fired electricity will not die alone

, --November 26, 2012

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That serial alarmist, Professor Flannery, says “Solar and wind could be the cheapest form of power by 2030, if not earlier, as carbon prices (he means taxes) rise”.
That is like me saying that I could beat Roger Federer at tennis as long as he is forced to use a cricket bat instead of a tennis racquet. Or I could outrun Cathy Freeman as long as she has her shoe laces tied together by race officials. Demolition is easy. Any industry can be destroyed by taxing it to death while subsidising its competitors. So the Flannery Plan can be made to work as fast as he likes. But cheap reliable coal-fired electricity will not die alone. Consumers will suffer greatly, big industrial users will migrate, asset values will be destroyed and real jobs will disappear. The Flannery Plan will enrich green power speculators and foreign manufacturers, and create regiments of paper jobs in the law, the bureaucracy and academia. The global climate will be unaffected. Viv Forbes

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Viv Forbes——

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.