QLD coal mining on it's knees - wants more gov assistance :s

Coal mining, despite coal mining employing just .4% of the entire Australian workforce, and despite the already $billions of subsidies it gets off the gov, coal now is struggling to remain above water. 

Or to put it another way, the chooks are coming home to roost.

Despite the screams from the community, particularly in Queensland, not to built the biggest coal mine in the southern hemisphere in the middle of the Reef, the Newman state gov (and Abbott federally) ploughed ahead. Offering $billions in taxpayers money to Adani to fund the project at one point. Completely ignoring green energy such as solar and wind.

Now the Queensland coal industry is on it's  knees, as the price of coal goes through the floor and the world turns away from fossil fuels. Adani has put the biggest coal mine everest on hold until the impossible happens and the coal price recovers, and even Adani is now investing in renewable energy in India. 

This isn't a case of accidentally and unexpectedly being caught off guard by coal's collapse and the turn to renewables. It's a case of blind demented faith in a dying industry. This is akin to Kodak going broke because it refused to believe camera film was over. Blind Freddy could've seen the writing on the wall for coal. I guess it's hard to be impartial when the coal industry is funding your politics......

By now there should have been large scale renewable energy projects underway, with workers being retrained with the help of gov to move to those industries. The capacity for building the infrastructure is enourmous and will be ongoing. But to my knowledge there's fuck all. 

What a complete failure of both state and federal gov's. How much are we paying these morons again to preach to us how good coal is?

Roche estimated that 21,000 jobs had been lost in the industry in Queensland in the past two years as demand from China has slowed and commodity prices have plunged. 

“We would like government to think about what we need to do to protect the remaining 60,000 jobs in the Queensland resources sector,” Roche said. 

But Lock The Gate said the industry provided less than 3% of jobs in Queensland and that rehabilitating the landscape from the impact of open-cut coal mining in particular would create far more employment than financial relief for existing operations. 

The Australia Institute produced a report in 2014 which said that over a six-year period to June 2014, state governments in Australia spent $17.6bn supporting the mineral and fossil fuel industries. Queensland received the largest share, $9.5bn. The QRC rejected the claims. 

Coal mining has been hit hard by shifts in the world economy. Australian thermal coal was selling for $US140 a tonne five years ago but now fetches around $US50. 

The burning of coal in China is in serious decline as its industrial expansion moderates and the government in Beijing tries to reduce fossil fuel use in order to curb air pollution. Demand from India and other developing Asian nations is expected to pick up some slack but not enough to compensate the huge fall in Chinese use. 

Some operators are struggling to survive in the changing market and even the mighty BHP Billiton, the biggest mining company in the world, has been taken by surprise by the falling prices. 

“These are some of the worst conditions they have faced in decades,” Roche said. “Some companies are teetering on the brink.” The Guardian