Seven Queensland mines in the Bowen Basin would be the hardest hit under the federal government's proposed price on carbon, documents released by Treasury show.
The papers say Queensland's gassy underground coal mines that would have been eligible for assistance under the dumped carbon pollution reduction scheme would be most heavily affected by the measure.
The seven are listed in a series of documents and email exchanges released under a freedom of information request on Friday - many sections of which are blanked out.
Anglo American's Capcoal Mine and Moranbah North Mine, BHP Billiton's Broadmeadows, Peabody Pacific's North Goonyella Coal Mine, Vale's Carborough Downs, and Xstrata Holdings' Newlands and Oaky Creek Coal Complex No.1.
The document, dated October 11, 2010, says the vast majority of the Australian coal industry is not emissions-intensive and will not face materially higher costs due to the introduction of a carbon price.
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"The average coal mine will face increase costs of less that 80 cents per tonne of coal at a carbon price of $25." The government has yet to release details of its carbon tax, other than that it will start on July 1, 2012, before moving to an emissions trading scheme in three to five years.
Other material shows that taking action to reduce carbon emissions will lower annual economic growth by just 0.1 per cent.
"Taking early action to reduce carbon pollution costs less than delaying action and smooths the transition to a low-pollution economy," it says.
It also says introducing a price on carbon is a "long-term pro-growth strategy" that would build low-emissions jobs for the future and have a modest impact on the cost of living for households.
It says Australia is not the only country taking action to reduce carbon pollution, with many developed and developing economies having already introduced measures.
In a January 12 document, it says the introduction of the GST (in 2000) had about seven times the impact than a $10 carbon price is likely to have. It would be 3.5 times larger at a $20 carbon price.
A persistent fall in the Australian dollar leading to a 10 per cent rise in import prices, would also have a bigger impact on inflation than a carbon price set at $10 or $20.
One email dated September 10 also lays out the scale of the task to reach the 2020 target of a five per cent emissions reduction on 2000 levels. It says this is equivalent to removing emissions associated with all cars on the road and nearly half Australia's electricity generation in 2020.
It would also be equivalent to planting new forests four times the area of Tasmania by 2020.
