Parker David: Biofuel Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: Biofuel Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 02 September 2008. Volume:649;Page:18294. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister of Energy) 
: 
 I would like to respond to some of the misinterpretation of information that was provided to members of the Local Government and Environment Committee including Dr Nick Smith by officials from the Ministry of Economic Development. The cost estimates that Dr Smith continues to recount to this Parliament are as he knows not the figures that were given to him by the Ministry of Economic Development. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Give us its figure. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: The figure is the figure that I gave earlier and the member has heard it on numerous occasions before. It is shown on this piece of paper here which is a briefing on the Biofuel Bill given by the Ministry of Economic Development on 18 June 2008 when that member was on the committee. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What does it say about costs? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: The advice was that the cost of the additional blending infrastructure and the like that the oil companies will have to have would be the equivalent of 0.2c to 0.4c per litre of fuel sold assuming that the— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: For the infrastructure. What about the fuel? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: For the infrastructure assuming that the cost is recovered over a 4-year period. They will probably recover it over a longer period. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: $20 million. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: It is 0.2c to 0.4c per litre. The overall cost to consumers is estimated at being in the range of a net benefit of 4c per litre to a net cost of 1.3c per litre. With higher oil prices biofuels could in fact save New Zealanders money. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: So you don’t need regulation. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: We have Dr Smith chipping away there saying we do not need regulation. His other stated concern is the sustainability of biofuels. At the moment one can sell biofuels in New Zealand they are sold in New Zealand and there are no sustainability criteria. Whichever way one looks at it this bill improves the status quo because it immediately introduces reporting obligations in respect of biofuels and it promises to have fully articulated sustainability criteria by about the middle of next year. In the meantime it sets out the principles that have to be applied in respect of those sustainability criteria. 
Can I just demolish a couple of other things that have been spuriously put up by the National Party. An example was given of corn-to-ethanol. We agree that that is a bad thing. Corn-to-ethanol could be produced and sold in New Zealand at the moment; this legislation because of the sustainability criteria will prevent it from occurring in the future. It would not meet the sustainability criteria because the criterion of a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would not be met. It would fail on that one. In addition it would fail to meet the criterion that biofuels not be grown on land of high productive value. 
Finally on the issue of cost as I said the cost might go down or it might go up by 1c a litre. We hear National members shed crocodile tears about that whilst their transport spokesperson who has not taken a call in this debate is proposing tolls in Auckland of $5 a day each way—50 bucks a week!