How a lack of social license is derailing Australia’s most controversial coal company
Much has been written recently about the financial state of Whitehaven Coal company (WHC). Even more has been written about the divestment campaign currently building across Australia. But the greatest amount of coverage has been given to the growing opposition now confronting WHC. These three facts are intimately related.
WHC is now almost two years behind schedule. The company insists it will move first coal from the Maules Creek mine by first quarter of 2015. It may or may not. But whenever it manages to get some coal to market it will find itself confronting a perfect storm of opposition.
This storm is an unholy mix of thermal coal in structural decline, with reduced global demand, over-supply and a tightening global carbon budget, coupled with massive community resistance and on-going protests.
