Energy finance specialist: Adani to struggle under Labor

AN ENERGY finance studies specialist is predicting Adani’s $16 billion Carmichael coal project in central Queensland will struggle under a Labor government.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis’s Tim Buckley said Adani was already under pressure because of lower coal prices.

The Newman government’s offer of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money for infrastructure investment funding will be scrapped under Labor.

In an opinion piece, Mr Buckley said the incoming Queensland government would be called upon to examine how lavish promises were made to Adani to begin with.

He said any government would be hard-pressed to explain, with analysis showing the Adani proposal was commercially “unbankable”.

But Adani has maintained it is committed to proceeding with its Galilee Basin mine, rail and port projects regardless of the outcome of the Queensland election.

Mr Buckley described the company’s response as “tone-deaf denial”.

He went so far as to suggest Adani “face the reality of evolving energy markets” and “abandon its outdated Galilee Basin ambition”.

IEEFA’s mission is to reduce dependence on coal and other non-renewable energy resources.

Mr Buckley said Labor’s commitment to saving the Great Barrier Reef would also be an obstacle for any dredging plans.

Labor MP Jackie Trad last month said her party would not support dredging up the Great Barrier Reef for a project that hadn’t received financial closure.

– APN NEWSDESK