carbon tax: wealth dedistribution by stealth?, page-23

"hi mark, if a company is already efficient how is it supposed to switch to a clean source of energy? put a windmill in their parking lot or drill for hot rocks? this is what I don't get - how does putting extra costs on an individual or a business drive a short term switch to "clean energy" when investment in such energy takes years/decades and is not readily available?"

Companies put their capital where they get the best bang for their buck. This change will mean they have to change their capital priorities. Instead of build a new production train they might instead focus of making the existing trains more energy efficent because they now get a better return on capital by doing that. That does not take decades , my company is an exporter and we are already looking at ways of doing this , it was not important before as their was better financial returns to be had with other projects.
Thats how it forces change. The returns on better efficency will be higher so they may have already been as efficent as possible versus the cost of power , now power is more expensive this justifies the extra capital spend to become more efficent.

Yes cleaner energy alternatives will take longer but not decades certain things can be done in years and will be.

The big power monopolies will take alot longer but they will eventually change.

This will force change and quicker than you can imagine.