Climate Change Measures

The HoS looks at Contact Energy and the role it may play in climate change. First we are reminded:

The reality is that since Labour took office in 1999 New Zealand’s emissions have grown at twice the rate of the United States, four times the rate of Japan and are even larger than Australia.

Now Contact Energy has announced a a bold $2 billion five-year programme to build new renewable energy projects — geothermal and wind. Worth remembering this is the privately owned generator. The other two major ones are publicly owned.

But what is the problem with their plans? The RMA.

Contact believes geothermal is the best replacement for carbon producing gas and coal stations because it is more reliable than wind. But it has been frustrated by the six-year process it has taken to get resource consent to upgrade the Wairakei station, still months away.

No resource consent should ever have to take more than a year, two at the most. But we have roads which take longer to consent than build. Marinas which take 13 years. We need a resource consent process which allows objections to be heard and considered, but doesn’t involve years and years of delays.

While on the topic of climate change, the HoS also reports on how the Government is alienating the entire forestry sector, who also might be key to helping with climate change.

They just don’t get it, that if you keep all the credits for yourself, yet try and impose huge debit costs on industry, industry will rebel. They are looking to charge $13,000 per hectare if you change your land from forests to farms, yet won’t let you keep the credits from keeping it forestry.