ETS: Just Scrap It – ACT

ACT New Zealand Parliamentary Leader John Boscawen today called on the Government to drop the pretence and scrap the Emissions Trading Scheme altogether after the ETS Review Panel report recommended delaying the introduction of the energy, transport, industrial and agricultural sectors into the scheme.

“Today’s report confirms what ACT has been saying all along; the ETS is a disaster and should be scrapped.  The Government has realised that by including all gases and all sectors in the ETS we are in a lonely club of one, so has backtracked and delayed subsequent stages of the scheme,” Mr Boscawen said.

“Despite the concessions likely to arise from today’s report the ETS is still harming New Zealand households and strangling our economy.  New Zealanders are paying an extra four cents a litre for petrol and an extra five percent for electricity, all to subsidise the private planting of new forests.

“Farmers and businesses also face enormous costs with dairy farmers paying $3,900 a year through higher electricity and processing costs and beef and wool farms paying an extra $1,000 a year.

“The report today does a great job of highlighting the scheme’s flaws but does little to remedy them.  Instead of delaying the inevitable the Government should have the courage of its convictions and do what ACT has called for all along – scrap the ETS,” Mr Boscawen said.