Bleak Oil

50,000 Protest Mining on Conservation Land

2010-05-02T13:37:00.006+12:00

NZHerald are reporting that 50,000 people have turned out for a protest in Auckland against the proposal to open up schedule 4 land for mining. The protest closed down Queen St for an hour and a half on Saturday morning.

Schedule 4 land is protected under the Crown Minerals Act as "high-value conservation land". It is feared that mining in these areas will be at the detriment to our 'pure nz' image and is immoral given the information we know on climate change.

The National government proposal wishes to remove a number of sites from schedule 4 protection and open them up to the mining industry, public consultation will be sought once the review is complete.

Biodiesel Subsidy in Action!

2010-03-10T13:00:00.005+13:00

The ODT is reporting that Queenstown has opened its first biodiesel station, the beginning of a long-term aim to introduce commercial biofuel to Otago and Southland.

The project was brought to fruition by Otago Polytechnic's Center for Sustainable Practice in conjunction with the ECCA biodiesel grants scheme (mentioned in earlier blog posts) setup by the National Government.

It's great to see the biodiesel subsidies producing the results they were setup to achieve. The biofuel station offers B20 blend biodiesel with aims to offer pure biodiesel (B100) in the future.

Tidal Energy Recommendation

2010-01-11T12:16:00.008+13:00

The Environment Court has today given a positive recommendation to Tim Groser (Conservation Minister) on a proposal by Crest Energy to generate electricity from Kaipara Harbour.

Tidal generation draws energy from the tidal movements of the ocean in localised areas such as harbours, with great potential in New Zealand to further diversify and expand renewable generation capacity.

The Kaipara Harbour has a tidal range of around 7 feet (2.10meters) and has the potential to generate 200MW from 200 turbines, which would power around 250,000 homes.

Power Reforms to have Perverse Consequences

2009-12-15T10:19:00.009+13:00

On the 9th of December Gerry Brownlee announced plans to shake up the state owned power companies - in order to increase competition within the market. The shake up is an attempt to help stabilise rising electricity costs and increase security of supply, but there are a number of perverse consequences that will arise from these changes. It will be introduced in the house as the Electricity Industry Bill.

My first concern is the transfer of the hydroelectric stations Tekapo A and B from Meridian to Genesis, in exchange for the gas-fired Whirinaki power station. Meridian has built it's reputation as an energy supplier around being 100% renewable and this transfer of assets completely undermines Meridian's commercial image. The ability for consumers to chose their energy supplier is one of the few ways consumers can express their support for renewable energy in New Zealand. These choices provide economic signals for the market and should help guide the direction for future generation capacity. This particular asset swap will mean there is no longer a 100% renewable energy supplier in the market, reducing the consumers ability to encourage the uptake of renewables by exerting pressures on the market through choice.

My second concern is that the transfer of Tekapo A and B from Meridian will have dire consequences for security of supply. Currently, Meridian controls all eight hydroelectric power stations down the Waitaki River, but shifting control of Tekapo A and B will have downstream effects on the generation capacity of Meridians six other stations. Effectively allowing Genesis to hold Meridian at ransom and game the market, at the cost of the consumer - contrary to the aims of the reform.

The National Government should reconsider the asset swap proposed in Electricity Industry Bill, and I would urge the public to submit on this Bill during the Select Committee phase - especially in relation to consumer choice in the market to support renewable energy generation.

National / Maori ETS Agreement

2009-11-25T09:41:00.004+13:00

The National government have recently secured support from the Maori party for the controversial amendments to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The support was secured after a number of compromises were met, they include:

Measures to halve the price impact on households,
Enhancement of energy efficiency assistance,
Treaty clause in ETS legislation,
Treaty settlements pre-ETS where iwi unknowingly disadvantaged,
Involvement in international negotiations,
Crown/iwi partnerships for afforestation programmes,
Review of permanent forest sink initiative,
Fishing industry allocation,
Agriculture advisory group on inclusion in ETS,
National Policy Statement (NPS) on biodiversity,
Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions research,
Broader environmental policy.

Of concern is the level of impact at which the concessions will have - on the scheme as a whole and in terms of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions. Most of these points have not been given the level of scrutiny that is seen during the Select Committee process.

The amendments are thought to be passed over the next few weeks with the house under urgency, further reducing the level of scrutiny the amendments will receive.

Select Committtee fails to reach consensus on ETS, Government does

2009-11-18T12:05:00.004+13:00

The finance and expenditure committee have reported back on the 16th of November, failing to reach a consensus on the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill. The Select Committee report outlines five minority views on the Bill, after less than two months of discussion.

The report itself shows the priority the current government is putting on highly complex and potentially wide reaching climate change policy. With a five paragraph minority view from the National party in comparison to the 14 page view of the Labour party.

Criticism was raised by the Green party towards the National Government, that "having failed at the select committee stage, it is clear that the Government is intending to introduce during the committee of the whole House stage a number of significant amendments, which the select committee has not seen or discussed. This is a deeply flawed, undemocratic way of developing such important legislation and will result in serious errors."

The criticism seems to be exactly on point, with the ODT reporting today that "a deal with the Maori Party appears to have secured support for the Government to pass its troubled emissions trading scheme legislation."

The National Government approach towards climate change policy is concerning for New Zealanders because it is the second time the democratic process has been circumvented to minimise participation in order to push through legislation on the issue.

Current Situation Regarding Biofuel in New Zealand

2009-11-12T13:32:00.003+13:00

Biofuels could play a vital role for New Zealand; they have the ability to offer a renewable fuel source and net emissions reductions to the transport sector. Correct implementation is essential to sustainably attain these benefits. A number of concerns had been raised with regards to the encouraged uptake of biofuels – biofuels may compete with food supply resulting in instability of food prices and have indirect effects on net emissions resulting from land use and land use change.

Consensus is thought to have been reached on sustainability principles for biofuel production in New Zealand, Jeanette Fitzsimon’s Sustainable Biofuel Bill received cross party support at the first reading in Parliament and is currently before the Select Committee. The Sustainable Biofuel Bill sets in place three principles to ensure biofuels are produced with tangible and observable benefits, while minimising possible social and environmental harms.

The international public policy approach towards biofuels involves subsidy schemes coupled with national mandated targets. New Zealand is out of step with the international approach because there is currently no mandated target, although subsidy and waiver schemes are in place. New Zealand was slow with the implementation of subsidy and waiver incentives, resulting in delaying growth within the industry.

The public policy in New Zealand towards biofuels has been uncertain over the past three years, caused mainly by the change in government. Policy uncertainty is further concern because it creates a lack of confidence within the industry and can discourage large investment. The absolute result is that New Zealand is falling behind in the uptake of biofuels in comparison with other countries. New Zealand needs to have a solid policy direction for biofuels in order to enhance growth within the industry.

National Rushes ETS Legislation

2009-10-18T16:41:00.007+13:00

Submitters on the revised ETS were given only hours notice on Thursday last week to take make their oral submissions to the finance and expenditure select committee on Friday. With any spill over to be heard early this week.

David Parker left the meeting with disgust at the rush at which the legislation is being heard. Jeanette Fitzsimons later raised similar concerns with the media. NZHerald and RadioNZ report.

This is of particular concern because it shows the lengths the National Government will go to avoid any serious action on the climate change issue. Have the National Government made up their mind on emissions trading legislation already?

Submissions should never be limited due to time constraints - where possible I believe every effort should be made to listen to the widest range on views on any drafted legislation. This is of particular importance to uphold democractic participation; especially with regards to important legislation.

Green Party climate change target and National Government

2009-10-13T12:31:00.016+13:00

On August 4th 2009 the Green Party released a study entitled ‘Getting There’, which was an attempt to influence the current National Government in setting a 40% emissions reduction target for 2020. The study was released one week before an emissions reduction target was due to be announced, as part of a global agreement leading up to climate change talks (COP15) taking place in Copenhagen late 2009.

‘Getting There’ outlines ways “New Zealand can reduce its carbon emissions dramatically and cheaply” (Fitzsimmons J, 2009). Net emissions reduction opportunities are outlined in five key areas: Energy, Transport, Agriculture, New Forest Plantings and Indigenous Forest Enhancement.

“Environment Minister Nick Smith says it’s too hard and too expensive to set a responsible target” (Fitzsimmons J, 2009) and this study is a direct attempt to contradict this and similar statements made by the National Government. The accompanying press release also raises serious questions about the figures calculated by the National Government with regards to associated costs of emissions reductions – reportedly using inflated carbon prices of $200/tonne when the figure used by Ministry for the Environment and general consensus is said to be around $25/tonne (Ministry for the Environment 2008).

The study states that New Zealand cannot rely solely on an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to provide the incentives to shift to a low carbon economy – further funding is required for a range of measures (outlined below). It also repeats the urgency to act on emissions reductions, stating that emissions reductions need to start now so that savings can accumulate by 2020.

There is acknowledgement that the New Zealand public requires a change of attitude and perceptions; in relations to understanding the change that is needed to take place in order to reach a 40% emissions reduction target. It is not New Zealand’s responsibility, but our international obligation to reduce our carbon emissions, and this can be done “at little or no cost if efficiencies are widely applied” (New Zealand Herald, 2009). It will also bring many co-benefits from economic efficiency to improved environmental quality.

It is important that this document is critiqued in the context for which it was written. ‘Getting There’ was written as a political tool for the Green party, to attempt to undermine the credibility of the National Governments opposition in setting a bold emissions reduction target. It attempts to show this by presenting a possible affordable path on which New Zealand could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.

The study does not even show how New Zealand can reduce its emissions to 40% below 1990 levels in 2020, because the strategy outlines purchasing 11Mt worth of emissions credits from overseas. Quick calculations of the numbers show that the reductions shown only give a reduction to 21% below 1990 levels in 2020, therefore the purchase of emissions credits represents the final 19% of the target. After personally questioning the integrity of including purchased credits in meeting an emissions reduction target on the Green party blog, I received the following response from Nandor Tanczos:

Even if the plan relies on buying some credits, that is not a bad thing. If we want poor countries to adopt strategies to reduce emissions (or protect sinks) we need some wealth transfer from rich countries like ours as part of a global transition plan.

The National government have symbolically showed their commitment (or lack thereof) through the subsequent repeal of the New Zealand Energy Strategy (NZES) and the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (NZEECS) that both attempted to set a track for a New Zealand transition to a low carbon economy.

A lot of the calculations undertaken in producing the document can be seen to be relatively ‘back of the envelope’. But this is seen to be expected, as the purpose of presenting absolute numbers is more symbolic than scientific in this case. Of concern is the number of sketchy assumptions that are made throughout and the lack of analysis for bold measures.

‘Getting There’ provides a good overview of potential savings that could be applied to New Zealand’s economy, a number of the methods and initiatives are questionable when applied to real case. But it does achieve its primary objective; to present a case for setting a 40% emissions reduction target in line with the Green party policy and the Greenpeace ‘sign on’ campaign.

Convincing the National government into setting a bold emissions reduction target is a rather uphill battle, especially when Gerry Brownlee holds both the Minister for Economic Development and Minister of Energy and Resources portfolios.

National to review another environmental law

2009-06-10T19:00:00.003+12:00

It is reported today that the current government intends to review the national air standards set by Labour in 2005, to make them more "practical and achievable".

Another environmental standard to go out the window? Along with the overturning of the ban on incandescent bulbs (since vindicated by a recent Consumer magazine test) and the delays to the Emissions Trading Scheme.

My personal understanding of standards is something that should be worked towards and achieved, not lowered until everyone passes.

"National environmental standards are mandatory technical environmental regulations. They have the force of regulation and are implemented by agencies and parties with responsibilities under the RMA". [Ministry for the Environment, Updated Users Guide to Resource Management Regulations, 2005]

It sets activity standards (banning activities that produce high levels of dioxins and other toxics, ambient air quality standards and design standards to wood burners and landfill gas burning.

WWF Release Living Planet Report

2008-10-30T15:32:00.006+13:00

WWF has just released its periodic living planet report, the report "describes the changing state of global biodiversity and the pressure on the biosphere arising from human consumption of natural resources" (panda.org). The report has some interesting conclusions, it notes that the world's ecological footprint now exceeds the world biocapacity by around 30%.

But the report has even more damming information for New Zealand, we rank 6th in 'ecological footprint per person'. The numbers from 2005 show that the average New Zealander needs around 7.7Ha of land to sustain our current standard of living (compare this to the average biocapacity the earth can supply of 2.1Ha per person). To put it in perspective, if the whole world consumed the same way that New Zealanders do, we would require over three and half planet earths worth of land and resources.

Although it should be noted that New Zealand is an overall 'ecological creditor', this means that our local biocapacity exceeds our ecological footprint.

Will this report have any effect on our tourism industry? Given our international slogan of being '100% Pure'.

Environment v Economic Recession

2008-10-29T23:14:00.004+13:00

Will the current economic recession in New Zealand hinder current environmental progress from Government?

As New Zealand companies begin to feel the pinch on top of recently passed legislation (ETS, Biofuel Act) with regards to emissions, will Government back down on some of the principles in the legislation? - This was seen when the date of inclusion of the transport sector (under an ETS) was pushed back due to increasing petrol prices during the first half of the year.

Recent polls in Australia (NZ Herald) suggest that many are pulling support for an ETS, with 21% now in complete opposition of such a scheme and 30% suggesting delaying the introduction due to the global economic downturn.

Cabinet rejects inquiry into power prices

2008-10-08T01:51:00.003+13:00

The government has rejected holding another inquiry into power prices, stating that "we don't accept the case for at all" (Helen Clark).

Earlier in the week Lianne Dalziel (Commerce Minister) and David Parker (Energy Minister) announced they would raise the issue at cabinet and seek a wide inquiry into the electricity market. Stating that they did not seem to make sense and they could not see how the increases could be justified

This coming after Contact announced an increase in power prices of around 10% for Wellington and South Island customers - blaming transmission costs and the widening gap between supply and demand in the South Island for pushing up the prices.

New Biofuel Act comes into force

2008-10-08T01:16:00.004+13:00

Well, October 1st has passed and the Biofuel Act has now come into force. Although effects of the Act will not begin to be seen immediately, with a 15 month 'phase in' period for industry to adjust to the new regulations.

The Biofuel Act requires 0.5% of total sales (by energy content) must be biofuel for the remainder of this year, increasing by 0.5% every year until a cap at 2.5% which will occur in 2012.

The Act was slammed by the Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright during the select committee phase earlier this year. This was because the Act did not go far enough in setting standards for the biofuel that was added to the petrol at the pump. Amendments were made including adding 'sustainability principles' for the biofuel, but criticism remains whether adding a biofuel obligation is the best way to combat emissions.

The global debate is ongoing on whether biofuels are overall more harmful to the environment, through the creation of the large scale biofuel crops. Biofuels have also been blamed for pushing up world food prices, causing the shortages that have lead to riots and protests across the globe in late 2007 and early 2008.

International Car Free Day

2008-09-20T11:52:00.004+12:00

Monday 22nd September is international car free day, so ride a bike or walk to work.

Leafs (with the information written on) have been distributed about Dunedin, informing car owners parked around town/campus of the event.

Take part, help reduce peak traffic congestion and emissions across the world! (even if just for a day).

Mitsubishi to test Electric Car in NZ

2008-09-17T10:29:00.009+12:00

"New Zealand will be one of the first countries in the world to host the highly anticipated Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle (i MiEV) early next year."

Mitsubishi have teamed up with Meridian Energy to assist creation of infrastructure, supply for the vehicles and optimization for NZ conditions. Local and National government representatives will be invited to trial the cars.

The MiEV is said to be the next generation of transport, running on lithium-ion batteries and therefore producing no emissions. "A real alternative to the petroleum dependent internal combustion engine." - John Leighton (Managing Director Mitsubishi Motors NZ).

This is a good start for New Zealand, hopefully spurring the development of large scale infrastructure development. Hopefully electric cars will become a viable option for the average joe in a few years.

ETS to Increase Petrol by 7c

2008-09-15T13:14:00.006+12:00

"Motorists face a probable 7c-a-litre price rise at the pump from 2011 when costs of the Emissions Trading Scheme are passed on, according to Government estimates based on projected carbon prices."

New Zealand Herald have posted this article, indicating the possible affects to the consumer when the transport sector falls under the ETS in 2011.

The inclusion of the transport sector was delayed till 2011, because rising oil prices (subsequently increasing the price at pump) were 'already' doing the job of discouraging excessive consumption of petrol. But now oil has fallen back to below $100 will the Government bring the inclusion of the transport sector forward? 2009? I doubt it.

Airfares are also expected to go up for consumers around the same time, this cost is expected to be around the current optional offset offered by airlines (~$2.30 for a one-way domestic flight). Although international air travel is exempt, partly due to the fact that no country is currently liable for international air travel under Kyoto.

Public/Business views on ETS

2008-09-15T12:30:00.004+12:00

A recent survey conducted by ShapeNZ (national online survey panel run by the NZ Business Council for sustainable development) concluded the following.

Quick summary of the results:
Climate change or global warming due to the greenhouse effect is a problem now (58%).
New Zealand's overall response to climate change is moving at the right pace (39%).
Survey respondents agree (30%) with the policy approaching of buying and selling carbon credits.
Survey respondents support emissions pricing and accept its needed (31%).
Survey respondents feel somewhat informed (39%) of the proposed emissions trading scheme.

Full survey results available here (NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development)

This is interesting as the full results show that general public respondents view is very similar to that of business decision makers. Overall it shows that many support the action the Government is taking to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

Public awareness of the scheme need to be raised, especially business owners (as they will be the ones hit by the costs). Hopefully we see some handbooks, factsheets or advertising campaigns some time in the near future.

ETS comes into law

2008-09-11T11:48:00.006+12:00

"New Zealand had risen to meet the greatest challenge facing the world"
- David Parker (Minister Responsible for Climate Change Issues)

Last night the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill made it through its third reading in Parliament by a 63-57 vote and became law.

Those supporting it were: Labour, NZ First, Greens, Progressive Party

The scheme introduces limits to greenhouse gas emissions for all sectors of the economy, with some sectors being phased in earlier than others. It will also help NZ meet its emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol of reducing emissions to 1990 levels.

It also "creates a preference for renewable electricity generation by implementing a moratorium on new fossil-fuelled thermal electricity generation, except to the extent necessary to ensure the security of New Zealand's electricity supply."

Welcome

2008-08-26T01:35:00.004+12:00

Welcome to Bleak Oil.

I am a student at Otago University studying Energy Management and Politics in Dunedin.

This blog helps document my thoughts and opinions on energy, environment with regards to policy formulation and implementation in New Zealand.