Biofuels company ditches NZ

Dickon Posnett, managing director of Argent Energy's NZ subsidiary, says New Zealand's proposed legislation in the Biofuels Bill makes the playing field too uneven.

"Ethanol gets a government-backed subsidy, through relief from excise duty, that amounts to 42c a litre," he says.

"Oil companies are being incentivised to import ethanol. That makes it utterly uneconomic to invest in the domestic biodiesel plant we were proposing to build."

Posnett says New Zealand policy development is being watched closely by investors internationally.