His business couldn’t afford the ‘wonderful’ feeling of SA’s ‘green’ power.

As that great frog-philosopher, Kermit reckoned, it isn’t easy being ‘green’. It is even harder when the cost of attempting to do so is, quite literally, crippling.

Back in July, a family-owned specialist plastics recycling company in South Australia was forced to close its doors for good, with the loss of 35 jobs, after its electricity bills soared from $80,000 a month to $180,000 a month in less than 18 months.

At the time, Plastic Granulating Services managing director Stephen Scherer said power price hikes, driven by the closure of the state’s last coal-fired power station and a more than 40 per cent green energy mix, were the “final straw” for a company founded by his father 38 years ago. “I am absolutely devastated,” Mr Scherer said. “I literally kept a close daily monitor on electricity prices and at the…