“Diesel decision a victory for Auckland”

December 13, 2001

Auckland Regional Council Chairman Philip Warren says the Government’s announcement that Auckland will be supplied with cleaner diesel is great news for all Aucklanders.

Associate Energy Minister Paul Swain said today that the Government will regulate to force the NZ Refinery Company and the four major oil companies to supply diesel containing 1000 parts per million of sulphur to the Auckland market.

“I congratulate the Government for introducing this interim measure. It is what we have been fighting for because it will benefit all Aucklanders by reducing the risk to human health,” Cr Warren says.

“We have always believed that fuel quality is a health issue and an Auckland issue because we have 700,000 vehicles belching out their fumes around the region. Now the Government has endorsed that view.”

Cr Warren is calling for the oil companies to adopt the new standards voluntarily while the regulatory process is worked through, as a demonstration of their good will.

“I would like to thank everybody who supported this measure from the outset and worked hard with us to make it happen,” Cr Warren says.

Cr Warren says that the Government now needs to follow today’s announcement up by finalising the key dates for further fuel upgrades in its fuel specifications review.

“The sooner those decisions are made at Government level, the sooner the whole country can benefit from cleaner fuels,” he says. “Any decisions must take into account the report into the effects on human health of air quality around the country which was recently commissioned by the Government.”

ENDS

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