rampage, most of the electricty produces are either privatly owned or operate as if they are. Subsidies are funded by goverment but not nessisarly from elecctricty.
As for the carbon tax, that has only been in for six months and here in WA from july 1 last year we had a 9% increace in electricty costs but only 2.6% of that was related to the Carbon tax. over the 2-3 years Prior to that we had 54% of increaces not related to the carbon tax.
Yes the carbon tax is supose to help drive the green energy revelution, from my understading of pigovian taxes it is a good thing but the question of if goverment is doing it right I can't say.
As for the chicken or egg thing, it is accepted that the egg came first.
Many prodject need huge investment that would take many years to pay off if you look at it from an accounting point of view but from an ecomomics perspective the pay off is much bigger.
