Coal-fired plant shifted $1bn offshore while pocketing $117m from Australian taxpayers

Payment to owner of Loy Yang B – one of country’s dirtiest plants – was compensation for short-lived carbon taxThe owner of one of Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants quietly moved $1bn offshore within days of pocketing $117m from taxpayers in compensation for Labor’s now-defunct carbon tax.The revelation, contained in the Paradise Papers, has prompted renewed criticism of the “chronic failure” of Australian climate policy and warnings against future cash handouts to multinational polluters.Within days of the $116.9m payment from taxpayers, Loy Yang B’s owner upstreamed $1bn out of its Australian operationsThis government can’t square the wheel on keeping its coal generators in business and meeting the Paris agreement Continue reading...