"We have no interest in a long-term subsidy," Mr. Key told the TV3 news program Firstline on April 2. "If it can't stand on its own two feet, then long-term, it shouldn't be there".
"While the proposal purports to recover money from industry, it also provides the industry with a long-term subsidy which could well exceed what it pays," said Representative John J. LaFalce of New York, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.
Strike prices - the amount the government guarantees to pay per unit of electricity - are set substantially above the current value of energy, as a form of long-term subsidy to encourage firms to invest.
Projects that are unproven, high-risk and require lucrative long-term subsidies from governments.
The legislation called for the elimination of long-term subsidies that had kept down rates for homes in flood zones.
Since 2000, federal assistance to the poor through long-term subsidies of public housing and Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) has stagnated.
"If member states are free to purchase any power plant with long-term subsidies, then there is no longer a role for companies to judge investments".
A government-funded study claimed that resettlement would also be economically unviable, necessitating unacceptable long-term subsidies from the Department for International Development's aid programme.
Although councils are happy to provide start-up funding for an after-school club, they tend to be wary of making a commitment to long-term subsidies for schemes that are never going to become self-sustaining.
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has accused Abbott of "sabotaging" Holden by demanding the company decide on its future in Australia before the government had made an offer on long-term subsidies, or even heard from the Productivity Commission inquiry it had set up to help it decide.
That's the ultimate goal a low-cost solution that doesn't require long-term subsidies".
