access to coal, page-8

200 million is only the conservative start at $5 per ton.
The real money flow will be in the concessions obtained from CPRS, Copenhagen results are Dec 2009.
Add the benefits of water supply to power operators.
QUARTER OF MELBOURNES WATER SUPPLY USED by power operators,? the proposed recycled water from werribee has been cancelled, so where is the continuous supply going to be from.
Hopefully not from the desalination plant ,otherwise electricity prices will surely double.

An interesting article ,with thanks to a hopeful english cricket supporter.

http://www.businessday.com.au/business/browncoal-dependence-to-last-decades-20090809-ee7e.html

Brown-coal dependence to 'last decades'Philip Hopkins
August 10, 2009
VICTORIA will still need brown coal for its electricity for decades,
according to a union leader, despite the threatened loss of thousands
of jobs in the state under the Federal Government's emissions trading
scheme.

Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council Brian Boyd said
Victoria was dependent on brown coal and would be for ''30, 50, 100
years''.

''That's really the truth of it, whether you like it or not,'' Mr Boyd
told an industry forum in Melbourne organised by the Victorian
Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

VECCI chief Wayne Kayler-Thomson had asked forum speakers to comment
on a VECCI report that estimated 29,000 jobs would be lost in Victoria
by 2020, based on a 10 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions.

The report, by Brian Fisher, of Concept Economics, said 45,000 jobs
would be lost in Victoria by 2020, real wages would be cut by 3 per
cent by 2020, and investment would be down by 2.7 per cent.

The economic costs to the state would happen by 2014. Key industries
such as manufacturing and non-ferrous metal production, including
aluminium, would be badly affected because they relied on cheap
electricity from Latrobe Valley brown coal, the report said.

Brown coal supplies more than 90 per cent of Victoria's electricity,
but produces a lot of carbon dioxide making it vulnerable to a cost on
carbon.

Under the proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS), the
Federal Government will cut greenhouse emissions by a minimum 5 per
cent by 2020 and 15 per cent if there is an international agreement by
the big economies.

Consultant Nicholas Gruen said most companies would be able to adjust
to a carbon price.

''Unless you're in some heavy energy-intensive business, it's
basically a non-issue,'' Mr Gruen said. ''Seen over a reasonable
period of time, say 20 years, electricity prices might double.

''Good - our hospital bills may double over that time, too. That is a
big long-run, structural adjustment, and it will be the same for
everyone. Everyone will adjust.''

Australian National University emeritus professor Bob Gregory said
brown coal was a problem.

But he said he never believed Victoria's future was dependent on it.

''There will be clearly problems in Gippsland … the future of brown
coal will not exist unless they clean it up,'' he said.

Mr Boyd said governments were encouraging the use of technology to
clean up brown coal, but current technology would only bring emissions
down to the level of black coal in NSW.

''There is no real plan to get us off the brown coal dependency,'' he
said.

VECCI will hold several industry forums before a Victoria business
summit on November 17