Oil companies in N.B. being overcompensated for federal clean fuel costs, experts say
Oil companies in N.B. being overcompensated for federal clean fuel costs, experts say
New Brunswick has been overestimating the cost of federal clean fuel regulations on oil companies and have allowed consumers to be overcharged by millions of dollars since last July as a result, two expert witnesses told an Energy and Utilities Board hearing this week.
Timothy Auger of the group Advanced BioFuels Canada and Vijay Muralidharan of Calgary-based R Cube Economic Consulting Inc. are each challenging a formula adopted last year by the EUB to calculate the cost of federal clean fuel rules on oil companies.
This week, that formula is allowing oil companies to add 5.22 cents per litre to the price of gasoline and 5.82 cents to the price of diesel in New Brunswick to pay for the cost of regulations that took effect nationally in July.
Every one cent added to petroleum prices in New Brunswick costs consumers about $1 million per month at the pumps.
It's in N.B., so those companies are Irving, Irving and Irving?
NB should kick their sorry asses out ... but they won't 'cause money talks. :/
Bob Jones called this out MONTHS ago. I guess now we know why the right wing keeps screaming for CBC to be de-funded.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
New Brunswick has been overestimating the cost of federal clean fuel regulations on oil companies and have allowed consumers to be overcharged by millions of dollars since last July as a result, two expert witnesses told an Energy and Utilities Board hearing this week.
Timothy Auger of the group Advanced BioFuels Canada and Vijay Muralidharan of Calgary-based R Cube Economic Consulting Inc. are each challenging a formula adopted last year by the EUB to calculate the cost of federal clean fuel rules on oil companies.
"It simply takes the highest cost option and applies it across the board in the entire fuel pool, and that misses the point we are trying to make here — that that is not a likely scenario."
In his evidence, Muralidharan also criticized Grant Thornton's estimate of the cost of clean fuel regulations, saying they exaggerate expenses faced by oil companies.
He suggested amounts allowed in New Brunswick since July were consistently more than double what consumers should be charged and recommended Grant Thornton's formula be reined in.
Its minister, Steven Guilbeault, heavily crticized the EUB's original decision and pledged to have his officials show up at the first opportunity to prove clean fuel regulations involve little cost to oil companies in the early years.
The original article contains 988 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
It suggested the true cost to oil companies in New Brunswick of clean fuel rules in 2024 would be two-tenths of a cent for gasoline and one-tenth of a cent for diesel.
By that estimate, oil companies are overcharging consumers by at least 25x.
WHY WOULD TRUDEAU DO THIS TO US?