New BrunswickOil companies and retailers endured a barrage of pointed questions in front of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board Thursday in their effort to undo a provincial government decision to eliminate refinery environmental charges from fuel prices starting next week.’We desperately need help,’ company tells Energy and Utilities Board at special hearingRobert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Nov 27, 2025 2:41 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Petroleum retailers packed the Energy and Utilities Board hearing room Thursday as the regulator heard arguments about the need for a new fuel charge to replace the one the Holt government is terminating on Monday. (Roger Cosman/CBC)Oil companies and retailers endured a barrage of pointed questions in front of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board Thursday in their effort to undo a provincial government decision to eliminate refinery environmental charges from fuel prices starting next week.Board Chair Christopher Stewart pressed David Knight of the Convenience Industry Association of Canada on if he was asking the energy tribunal to effectively change a decision the legislature has already made.”Isn’t that a statement by the legislature,” Stewart said about the coming pricing change.”Isn’t it just as simple as that?”Energy and Utilities Board member Kenneth McCullogh expressed sympathy with the financial problems retailers will face after Dec. 1 but expressed concern the board was being asked to ‘undermine’ the will of the legislature. (Roger Cosman/CBC)The environmental charges — which allow refiners and fuel importers to pass the cost of tightening federal environmental rules through to consumers — were authorized nearly three years ago by the former Blaine Higgs government.They currently add up to 7.9 cents per litre for gasoline and 8.8 cents for diesel, plus HST, at New Brunswick gas stations.New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt has argued oil companies should be paying for their own environmental costs and her government passed legislation to remove the charges from New Brunswick’s regulated fuel pricing formula effective Dec. 1.However, because New Brunswick does not regulate charges between oil companies, wholesalers and retailers and only enforces the final price to consumers, retailers have expressed concern that oil companies will continue to bill them for the federal environmental costs.WATCH | ‘I can say for a certainty stores will close,’ says retailer Chris Scholten:Energy board concerned about undermining legislature decision posing potential financial woes for retailersThe provincial government is eliminating refinery environmental charges from fuel prices starting Dec. 1, leaving retailers concerned they’ll be footing the bill instead.If that happens, they argue many stations in rural areas will quickly struggle to survive when seven or eight cents per litre is cut out of what they can pass through to consumers on the first of the month.Peter Clark, operator of Woodstock fuel supply business Clark Oil, predicted swift consequences in rural areas if businesses like his and those he supplies are unable to recover costs they will still be facing after Dec. 1.”As an industry and as a private company, I know we cannot sustain this massive price change as of Dec. 1,” said Clark.”We desperately need help from the board.”Peter Clark of Clark Oil pictured at a legislature committee meeting earlier this year. Clark told the EUB that retailers ‘desperately’ need it to grant a charge on fuel prices to take effect on Monday to replace what the Holt government is cancelling. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)Retailer Chris Scholten of the Scholten Group made a similar prediction.”Stores will close, jobs will be lost and people will have to drive further for fuel,” he said.Board members expressed sympathy with what may happen to retailers after Dec. 1, but continually came back to the question of how implementing an “equivalent” replacement charge to the one being cancelled would not improperly undermine a decision of the legislature.”I have to be convinced that if I agree to the relief sought, I am not frustrating the will of the legislature,” said board member Kenneth McCullogh.”We are stuck with what the legislature did.”As the hearing concluded, Stewart promised a decision will be rendered before the end of day on Friday.”It’s not lost on the board the urgency of this matter,” said Stewart.ABOUT THE AUTHORRobert Jones has been a reporter and producer with CBC New Brunswick since 1990. His investigative reports on petroleum pricing in New Brunswick won several regional and national awards and led to the adoption of price regulation in 2006.
N.B. petroleum retailers make case to replace 8 cent fuel charge that expires Monday
