eracode:
TBH, thinking it through, I was wrong to accuse BNZ of being climate change police. Their policy on cancelling rural petrol stations’ loans is actually based on the incredibly stupid idea that rural people are going to migrate to electric cars en mass > buy less petrol > stations won’t be able to service debt and will go out of business owing BNZ millions. BNZ wants to force the stations to repay the debt before that happens. Believe it or not, that is how they explained their thinking behind this policy.
It’s actually a ridiculous Credit & Risk decision - not directly based on climate change ideology. There are so many erroneous things about all this, it’s hard to know where to start. People worldwide, including NZ, are rapidly reducing the number of EVs they’re buying - and IMO rural people would be the last demographic to adopt EVs for obvious reasons (range angst, charging, … ?).
It sounds like weasel words to me.
Many petrol stations run a garage and in rural places are the equivalent of the local dairy. They have income streams separate from selling petrol and diesel. These places would take a hit if they didn't sell petrol but would most probably be able to pay the bank back. However even with these other income streams they are still being blacklisted.