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This is unbelievable. The aluminium smelter in Southland uses a huge amount of electricity, indeed a huge percentage of NZ’s total electricity consumption and would therefore be faced with some additional costs under the Govt’s polluter pays Emissions Trading Scheme. Fair enough I would have thought but the boys at Rio Tinto have spat the dummy like a bunch of spoilt children.

They’re basically saying “if you make us pay for our emissions we’re leaving and all our employees will be out of work.”

And to top it off old Tim Shadbolt comes out with this drivel:

“It would absolutely cripple us as a city.” The scheme was pointless because New Zealand produced a very small percentage of the world’s total carbon emissions.

Good one Tim.

More here from the Southland Times