Rush to spend green billions before election

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is determined to waste as much money as it can before the September election when the incumbent PM Tony Abbott has promised to dissolve it. The corporation was set up to fund "green" projects the banks would not touch and is fancifully supposed to run at a profit .
These decisions will be in line with the current government's scorched earth policy which will leave the new government in a very difficult position.

THE Clean Energy Finance Corporation is planning to write up to $800 million in green loans before the election, defying the Coalition's call for the agency not to sign contracts before September 14 because Tony Abbott has vowed to scrap it.

The CEFC has revealed it is in "active discussions" with 50 projects seeking $2 billion and that an additional 119 project proponents have presented proposals that are seeking finance worth $3.3bn. The figures are contained in an email from the CEFC to the opposition pleading its case not to be scrapped if the Coalition wins the election.

The CEFC was established as part of the Gillard government's Clean Energy Future package to provide finance to clean energy projects that might not otherwise be able to raise funds through the commercial banking system. It receives an allocation of $2bn a year for five years which has been locked into the government's budget through legislation.