Tuesday 22 January 2008

Taxpayers face $15b power sale sting

NSW taxpayers could be forced to pay more than $15 billion to indemnify private companies bidding for NSW's power assets, a report has found.

Full report from the Sydney Morning Herald

Would you purchase significant fossil based power production assets in the context of a Labor's recent electoral 'mandate', Australia's entry into Kyoto and the coming carbon cap / emissions trading scheme?

...certainly not without some financial guarantees. Looks like these fossil stations may be a bit of a hot potato and the utilities want to make certain they buy a dog with plenty of 'hunt' left in it.

The way I interpret the article, plants may have to shut down due to carbon/emissions caps. This would lead to the utility's financial recovery through the aforementioned indemnity. This would leave the taxpayer $15 billion short AND without adequate power production [and/or failure to meet emissions targets]?

Is this so?

No comments:

Post a Comment