According to Ballance's FY24 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, Kapuni produced 166,605 tons of CO2 in 2023-2024. In calendar year 2023 the government gave them 333,084 tons of carbon credits as a pollution subsidy - over twice their actual emissions. In its 2024 annual report, Ballance valued its FY2024 pollution subsidy at $18.8 million - more than its pre-tax profit, and three times more than the amount of tax it paid. And its been over-subsidised so much that it is sitting on nearly a million tons of surplus units, enough to cover its emissions for six years (see p43 of their annual report).
We should not be subsidising companies to destroy our environment and poison our people. It is that simple. Like Methanex, any shutdown in production reduces emissions and subsidies, so that's a Good Thing. And if it becomes permanent, and we don't have to subsidise this evil any more, that seems like a Very Good Thing Indeed.
But what about the jobs? Kapuni employs 120 people. So we're subsidising those jobs to the tune of $156,000 a year (on Ballance's valuation). Which makes them very expensive jobs. The government could just pay them $100,000 a year each to not destroy the environment, and we'd still be better off.
Of course, if the actually cared about jobs, they could clean the place up, and move to lower emissions production. The previous government might even have helped, through the GIDI program. And Ballance was looking at that, through a thing called the Te Ata project, which promised to reduce the plant's emissions by 90%. But they discontinued it in May 2024. And as a result, they're now left in a situation where they have no way forward, no future but a knife-fight for ever-decreasing amounts of gas. I guess we can call that the consequences of their own shortsightedness...