Electricity prices climb as crisis delivers first shock
The National Party says the Government's failure to address both a long and short-term electricity crisis is now
hitting householders in the hip pocket.
Contact Energy's announced that its Wellington customers will be paying an average of 3% and 6% more from next month.
"You can bet some of Contact's Wellington customers will be paying a lot more than 6% too, with the company talking
averages at this stage," says the National Party Energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee.
"The company's blaming the increases on higher wholesale prices and a 'narrowing gap between generating capacity and
demand'.
"It must now be clear to the Government that urgent action's needed to ensure New Zealand has enough electricity
generation capacity to sustain and strengthen economic growth," says Mr Brownlee.
"Just last week the Labour Party's closest allies, the trade union movement, warned the Government that rising wholesale
prices were forcing some companies to scale back production.
"The National Party has been asking for Energy Minister Pete Hodgson to take action for months, but instead of
addressing this critical issue right now, he's living it up in Hollywood - at the taxpayer's expense," Mr Brownlee says.