These reports today should be a loud warning for any investors and financier.

“Its use of offshore, low-tax jurisdictions in relation to its Australian operations, and the apparent uncertainty about ownership of the Abbot Point Port lease, raise questions about the ability of the public to scrutinize a project of such huge economic and environmental significance.”

Some coal-industry executives insist—despite all the evidence that suggests otherwise—on an inevitable turnaround in the years ahead.

The bottom line today is that the traditional nexus between real GDP growth, electricity expansion and coal demand is now broken.