BHP, the largest mining company in Australia (and the world), is now calling for a carbon tax in Australia, according to various news sources. Like just about everyone else, I'm not really sure what to think of this, so read between the lines of the linked articles and see what insight might be gained. BHP is widely diversified, and has major holdings in export coal, export iron ore, oil & gas, uranium, aluminum, and various base and ferrous metals.
In the recent election, neither major party supported a price on carbon in the next three years, but the Greens forced the government to set up an investigative committee on the matter as a price of forming a governing coalition.
havent read the articles, but the general theory is that the only thing worse than a price on carbon for these types of companies is uncertainty about if/what the price on carbon will be. they would rather know it will be X and be able to get on with their long term capital planning than have to try to make decisions on projects that have completely different economics depending on what the carbon price will be in 10-15 years.
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