ETS will add 10pc to company's costs

A Marlborough transport company operator says the introduction of the emissions trading scheme could impede business growth and increase his costs by up to 10 per cent.

Other groups in the community believe the flow-on effect to consumers will bring more pressure on already hard-pressed households.

Broadbridge Transport owner Weir Broadbridge said the ETS would affect business decisions and expansion of the company.

The transport and energy sectors were the first off the rank in being effectively penalised for carbon emissions under the scheme from today.

Mr Broadbridge said his company's prices would increase about 5 to 10 per cent as a result of the scheme, though he did not have exact figures yet.

"We'll end up needing to buy more eco-friendly trucks, which are generally more expensive," he said.

He did not think the price of the scheme for businesses and households was worth the projected aims of the ETS.

Tax cuts from October would not make much of a difference to his business, either, he said.

KiwiRail communications manager Nigel Parry said the effect of the ETS on the company was minimal because of the efficiency of rail and sea transport.

He said the company had measured its carbon footprint and found that a passenger crossing Cook Strait in a ferry had one sixth of the footprint of a person making the same journey by plane. However, fares would increase after October 1 as a result of the GST increase, he said.

Marlborough Grey Power vice-president Maureen Bennett said people on a fixed income would find it hard to cope with the projected $3 weekly cost of the scheme for households.

Climate Change Minister Nick Smith has put the cost to householders at $165 a year, or $3 a week.

Mrs Bennett said: "We're interested in the bottom line. Is it something that really needs to be introduced? Those families on a fixed income have no way of supplementing their earnings."

It was difficult to predict the effects on households until the scheme had been running for at least a year, she said.

"I'm not an environmentalist, but I know [the ETS] is taking a long-term view of the future of the world."

What Grey Power is looking at initially is this extra cost for our members and families.

"It's just going to be an extra belt-tightening exercise for the next 12 months."

Marlborough Family Budgeting Services co-ordinator Joan Farrow said the small increase for the ETS might not seem much, but it became significant when added to other "never-ending" increases such as GST, car registration and fuel.

The actual effects of the scheme on families was yet to be seen, but it was "already hard for [families] to make ends meet", Ms Farrow said.

"What concerns a lot of people is that it's just another thing we've got to deal with."

In general, people who went to budgeting services for help did not plan for a change in circumstances, she said.

"To be honest, people don't consider or prepare for change. They could be in an accident or move houses or change jobs – people think things won't change."

By SIMON WONG - The Marlborough Express

Last updated 12:00 01/07/2010