Yahoo Finance Adani promises to sue QLD government for $1.4bn if coal mining banned
A proposed bill to ban coal mining in the Queensland Galilee Basin has been described as “dangerous” by the multi-billion dollar multinational corporation planning to mine it.
Adani has warned this week that it will sue the Queensland government for $1.4 billion and future profits should it pass a bill put forward by state Greens MP Michael Berkman to ban coal mining in the basin.
Queensland’s Galilee Basin is a 247,000 square kilometre thermal coal basin and native habitat to the endangered Black-Throated Finch. Opponents of the mine say its operation will also require the dredging of the Great Barrier Reef – one of Australia’s natural wonders.
However, Adani Mining chief executive Lucas Dow told a public hearing on the bill on Monday that to ban coal mining in the Galilee Basin would create “enormous regulatory uncertainty and sovereign risk for Queensland, which would extend well beyond simply the Galilee Basin”.
“It would have far-reaching impacts, and there would clearly be a legal recourse for what has already been spent and for future profits.”
He accused those who supported the bill of favouring “environmental symbolism” over welfare, and said the conglomerate organisation would seek compensation from the government.
However, Berkman said Queensland should extend its concerns to consider the environmental cost of the controversial Carmichael coal mine and not just the potential losses Adani would make should the mine be banned.
Berkman said if the basin was mined it would drive down market prices and increase the uptake of coal in Australia.
“And it’s going to mean that we completely blow our Paris targets,” he told the ABC.
“That’s really what this is about. No amount of solar power, no amount of renewable energy of any type, can prevent the most catastrophic consequences of climate change if we dig up this volume of coal.”
According to The Australia Institute think-tank, the social cost of carbon emitted from the Galilee Basin mining will total at least $24.1 million before health costs and direct environmental damages are taken into account.
The troubled operation has received severe criticism from environmentalists, native title groups and even Australia’s big four banks, who all refused to finance the operation in 2017.
– With AAP
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