Sydney/Canberra — Elon Musk’s intervention in Australia’s energy crisis is widening a divide over the future of coal. The billionaire Tesla founder, who has promised to help solve an Australian state’s clean energy obstacles, sees no place for the fossil fuel. This conflicts with the national government’s push for it remaining a mainstay source of electricity generation, as well as the "clean, beautiful coal" technologies that US President Donald Trump sees helping save American mining jobs. "Coal doesn’t have a long-term future," Musk told reporters in Adelaide last week during a short trip to Australia. "The writing’s on the wall." His declaration in energy-strapped South Australia, where the businessman announced plans to build the world’s biggest battery to support the state’s blackout-plagued power grid, has rankled lawmakers. Energy minister Josh Frydenberg accused the state of tapping a celebrity to paper over its patchy clean energy record. Tesla’s battery plan "is a lot of ...
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