Kris Austin

Premier Susan Holt expressed frustration after the Energy and Utilities Board blocked her government’s decision to cut the cost of carbon adjuster from the price of gas.

The EUB announced Friday the planned removal of the adjuster, scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, would be negated by an interim order increasing wholesale margins by an equivalent amount.

In a statement late Friday, Holt said the government’s priority has been making life more affordable for New Brunswickers.

“That is why our government moved to eliminate the cost-of-carbon adjuster,” she said. “People deserve genuine relief.”

Holt said the adjuster was supposed to a temporary measure when the Higgs government put it in place three years ago.

She criticized the EUB’s decision after emergency hearings involving gas retailers and wholesalers who have claimed the cut would result in closures of some gas stations around the province.

“It is the EUB’s job to ensure the lowest possible price for consumers,” Holt said. “The carbon adjuster remains unsupported by evidence and consumers should not be forced to absorb costs the industry cannot prove.”

But the Progressive Conservatives took a different view of the decision.

“(Friday’s) interim decision by the EUB comes nearly 14 months after Premier Susan Holt made an uninformed and irresponsible election promise,” Tory energy critic Kris Austin said in a statement.

Austin said the decision granted a reprieve until next February for rural New Brunswickers and local suppliers of fuel.

Austin said those suppliers have warned the provincial government that their livelihoods and the rural fuel supply would be at risk if the retailers and wholesalers became responsible for the carbon costs.