New coalmines in Queensland don't help existing communities, they hurt them | Richard Denniss

Instead of subsidising new mines, imagine if we tried to protect existing coal communities and the environment at the same timeThis week in Queensland, Anthony Albanese has been devastating in exposing the lies, hypocrisy and absurdity of the National party's election "promise" to build a new coal-fired power station. That even the idea of building such a power station hasn't demolished the economic environmental and political credibility of the Morrison government tells you a lot about what is wrong in Australian politics today.But how do we square the circle on the broader coal debate? Internationally, the debate between those who think it's time we talked about fossil fuel supply (think Adani, the Keystone XL pipeline or the Canadian oil sands) and those who want to keep the focus on fossil fuel demand (think talk of targets, trajectories and closing down coal power stations) has been brewing for some time. Continue reading...