Petrol prices will increase by up to 3c and electricity by up to 3.3 per cent from today, Thursday July 1, when the Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme tax kicks in.
Energy, fossil fuels, industrial processes and transport will face extra costs from today as a result of the scheme.
Climate Change Minister Nick Smith was being grilled about the scheme this week and Labour leader Phil Goff was also out and about yesterday pointing out the pitfalls of National's ETS, although his party's scheme would have been more costly overall to New Zealand.
Mr Goff said Labour's ETS would have had complementary measures aimed at reducing the cost impact for families struggling with power and fuel bills.
Don Nicolson, president of the Federated farmers of New Zealand called it “a tax from the cradle to the grave” at the organisation’s annual conference in Invercargill last week.
Prime Minister John Key said "a disproportionate amount" of the costs would be paid by households in relation to their emissions.
Mr Key warned power companies against using the scheme as an excuse to raise prices.
The government has estimated on its climate change information website that the average household will face $165 a year in additional costs.
Many power and petrol companies have announced exactly how much more their customers will pay from today.
Electricity
* Mercury Energy is increasing electricity prices by 3.3 per cent starting from Thursday and Contact Energy by 3.2 per cent.
* Trust Power said it would not make any one-off increases, but extra costs would be gradually absorbed.
* Genesis Energy said it would take some time to review the impact of the ETS on its business before making a decision about retail pricing.
* Meridian Energy has not yet returned calls but has previously said it had no plans to increase prices in the short term.
Petrol
* Caltex said it would be raising its petrol prices by 3c and diesel by 4c today.
* BP said it did not yet know how it would change its prices and would review the situation today.
* Gull said it would "definitely not" raise its prices until at least next week. It had planned for the emissions trading scheme by introducing biofuels, which would be spared from much of the expected price increases on fossil fuels.
* Shell's New Zealand said it could not say exactly how much its prices would increase today, but the government's estimate of 3c to 4c "should not be too far off".
* Mobil said it could not say how much it would increase its prices as it would depend on "competitive responses".
Mr Goff said the "fundamental flaw" of National's ETS was because it legislated for significant subsidies to be made available (at a diminishing rate) for heavy polluters which were trade-exposed, the incentive for those outfits to reduce pollution was minimal - something which missed the point of having such a scheme.