Bank action says Hazelwood worthless

The Commonwealth Bank revealed at its AGM that it had written down its investment in Victoria's Hazelwood Power Station to only $1 million. The comments are proof that Hazelwood could be closed down for a fraction of the compensation its owners may be seeking.

Campaigner Mark Wakeham says the company has always known that there would be some form of carbon price or regulation in the future around climate change: "They've been making an awful lot of money out of the power station over the last decade. They've been generating electricity at a cost of about $8 a megawatt hour and selling it for $45 a megawatt hour. So it's been a very profitable operation. But clearly the Commonwealth Bank can see the writing on the wall. They can see that the power station has a very limited future and they're also not anticipating much in the way of compensation."
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