question., page-7

If the carbon (dioxide) tax comes into force (which is no guarantee given the perilous position of this government in the polls - one labor MP falling over means a change in government) then I would have thought the overall impact on gas prices over time should be positive. Theoretically the whole purpose of this tax is to raise the marginal cost of high carbon dioxide emitting industries (in particular brown coal generators such as Hazelwood / Playford) in order to make those less CO2 emitting substitutes relatively more competitive. Over time demand for domestic gas to fuel the expected increased in gas base load generators should increase - gas being an alternative fuel substitute to brown coal which should mean increased domestic gas prices. Solar and Wind (0 carbon dioxide emitting - are intermittant generators - with no base load capacity) and nuclear is currently politically unacceptable. It is my understanding the emmitters of the CO2 pay the tax not the producers - TAP is producing not emitting (TAP's CO2 footprint would be limited to energy used extracting the resource into a saleable form).

Thanks everyone for answering my earlier questions.