The winds of change are upon us:
BHP’s falling out with the Minerals Council of Australia has claimed the scalp of the lobby group’s chief executive, Brendan Pearson.
…his advocacy for coal and opposition to the Finkel review’s Clean Energy Target left him and the MCA increasingly isolated from BHP, with the simmering tensions coming to the surface in recent weeks.
It is understood that Mr Pearson first saw the writing on the wall in a board meeting during the MCA’s annual Minerals Week in Canberra earlier this month.
Sources close to the situation said the head of BHP’s Australian operations, Mike Henry, asked minerals council representatives to leave the meeting, leaving only member representatives present. Mr Henry is then understood to have expressed to the other members that BHP had lost confidence in Mr Pearson’s leadership.
…it is not aligned with the minerals council’s stance that new, cleaner coal-fired plants should be built without carbon capture and storage, and that the focus of the power system should be mainly on affordability and energy security.
BHP is in an interesting position here. It is still in thermal coal via the Hunter Valley but has exited most of its holdings via the South32 float. It also last year declared that the future was grim for thermal as the war against climate change accelerates.
At the same time, it is a large energy consumer on the east coast, as well as member of the gas cartel via the Gippsland JV. Building coal-fired power stations wouldn’t lower prices but they might mean a little less gas is used.
Perhaps it’s just a good corporate citizen?!?
Anyway, it goes to show just how isolated the Coalition coal trogs are becoming.
