Why did Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods even bother announcing her 10-year plan for minerals and petroleum when its future is bleak?
Why give the industry the idealistic goals of “affordable, sustainable energy” when the government is crippling it with legislation devoid of common sense?
“Aotearoa New Zealand’s future prosperity depends on a minerals and petroleum sector that can responsibly deliver the resources we need”.
Scoop
Woods cannot convincingly promise a future for the minerals and petroleum industry when her government has done everything possible to destroy it. This government and Woods are thoroughly conflicted because the Greens want to shut the industry down. This is not a responsible government.
A responsible government would have revisited the classification of the Pike River mine land in the Schedule Four protected conservation category that prevented its development as an open cast mine. If they had, 29 men might be alive today and the west coast growing and thriving. It’s not too late to revisit that decision, but this government won’t do it.
A responsible government would have kept issuing oil and gas exploration licences.
A responsible government would have given permission to Oceana Gold for the purchase of 178ha to develop a second tailings dam and extend the life of the Martha mine. Instead, Green activist turned minister, Eugenie Sage, recently turned their purchase application down, farewelling an annual export revenue of $200-$300 million and about 350 jobs.
Woods also said:
“Along with transitioning to a carbon neutral economy by 2050, we are also intent on building a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy. This economy needs to deliver housing and infrastructure costs that is suitable and affordable for the growing number of New Zealanders.”
Every development that you can think of relies on the much-maligned mineral and petroleum industry. Without it, houses and roads don’t get built.
“This built environment will only be realised if we can make sure an affordable and secure supply of resources such as aggregate and steel. We also need to ensure that we have the affordable, sustainable and secure energy to power this economy.”
Steel production relies on coal but this government doesn’t support coal mining. How is it sustainable or affordable to rely on Chinese coal imports instead of using our own resource?
The government that promises electric cars, buses and trains have not considered their “affordable, sustainable and secure” energy source. If they had, would David Parker have axed the proposed Waitaha hydro dam?
The UK had a wake-up call on relying on renewable energy.
“It happened at a terrible time – just before the Friday rush-hour. At 4:55pm on Friday, August 9, outages at two major UK power plants caused a sudden, major drop in the nation’s electricity supply. With more than one gigawatt of power lost from the system, National Grid had to reduce the load on the grid by forcibly cutting selected customers off.
Trains were left waiting on the tracks for hours. Tunnels on the London Underground went dark. A backup generator at Ipswich Hospital failed to start, leaving some to struggle down stairs after the lifts ground to a halt. In total, nearly a million people faced blackouts.
But it could have been even worse. Within seconds of problems hitting the grid, a fleet of batteries dotted around Great Britain were able to pump power into the system, preventing a rapid drop off in transmission frequency.”
Wired
Batteries the UK wouldn’t have without mining. Harvesting renewable energy is reliant on mining. EVs are reliant on mining. Technology is reliant on mining.
The Australian headlong rush into renewable energy saw increased costs and increased power blackouts. The Australian Energy Regulator is taking four wind farms to court over the “chaotic and expensive statewide blackout in South Australia”. This is our future if we let the idealistic Greens take us, unopposed, back to the Dark Ages.