23 Jun 2005 Reality of Kyoto a Blow to New Zealanders

From CNSNews.com comes this story:

New Zealand’s government is being challenged to justify the country’s continued participation in the Kyoto Protocol after it admitted that complying with the climate change treaty will cost taxpayers about one billion NZ dollars (U.S. $714 million).The news has rattled New Zealanders, who previously were led to believe that participating in Kyoto would earn the country millions of dollars in carbon “credits.”

The admission is a blow for a left-leaning, green-friendly government, which last month announced that one of the world’s first carbon tax regimes — entailing higher prices for gas, electricity and coal — would come into effect in 2007.

The opposition center-right National Party has called for an immediate formal review of the country’s participation in Kyoto, accusing the Labor government of a major policy blunder.

“They were so intent on looking good to their socialist friends in Europe that they forgot the enormous cost to New Zealand taxpayers,” National leader Don Brash told lawmakers in Wellington…

Is it rude to say “I told you so?” Probably.