energy

Categories under energy

Oz & NZ govts suppress official peak oil warnings

Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, January 26th, 2012 - 43 comments

Dennis Tegg has a good piece on the release of a secret Australian government report that warns peak oil is upon us: The Daily Telegraph has revealed how the Australian government has attempted to suppress its own report on peak oil. The response from the New Zealand government had been equally secretive and obfuscating.

Adapting to peak oil

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, January 20th, 2012 - 160 comments

As peak oil slowly grinds down our economy – meeting any hint of growth with sky-high petrol prices and making $2 a litre the ‘new normal’, we are actually, gradually,starting to react. Not at a governmental level, where action is most urgently needed, but in the decisions made by ordinary Kiwis every day.

Texas of the South Seas?

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, January 17th, 2012 - 132 comments

Every few years, since the 70s, they’ve promised the great New Zealand oil boom is coming. It ain’t going to happen. If there is lots of oil, it’s deepsea and expensive. And they haven’t found it in 40 years of looking. We have a worse production-consumption ratio now then the 80s. Even if we somehow become a massive oil exporter, it’s not the economic panacea you might think.

In praise of David Cunliffe

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, December 5th, 2011 - 131 comments

I enjoyed Jenny’s piece the other day on David Shearer’s leadership abilities. His skill at taking the ball and running with it, and doing what he thinks is right. I want to similarly praise David Cunliffe for his leadership in economic thinking. God knows we need someone who gets the problems and the solutions. Cunliffe brings that understanding in droves.

Buying back the assets

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, December 5th, 2011 - 216 comments

David Cunliffe has said that, if he is Labour leader, he will look to buy back any assets National sells once he is PM. Under the existing Takeovers Code, that wouldn’t be too hard. But why not go a step further and make it clear to any potential investor that our energy sector won’t be their cash cow? A bit of regulatory reform would sink the assets’ share value.

NoRightTurn: National on energy

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, November 15th, 2011 - 9 comments

NoRightTurn reviews the joke that is National’s energy policy: “National has released its energy policy. The short version? “Drill it, mine it, sell it”. Yes, seriously. A bright, shiny future, funded by magic money put in the ground by Leprechauns. Which we haven’t discovered yet. Its like basing your household budget on winning the lottery.”

The innovation that we need

Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, September 19th, 2011 - 49 comments

We’re going to need a lot of innovation to survive the coming decades. Today’s innovation is a simple modification that at least doubles the energy output of a wind turbine.  Brilliant.

Nats clueless on privatisation consequences

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, September 7th, 2011 - 17 comments

If electricity assets were part privatised, future governments couldn’t make the kind of reforms that National made earlier this year because of the need to consider private investors’ rights. Pretty simple, eh? Tell that to Hekia Parata. Bill English has his head in the sand on the effect of falling markets and can’t guarantee Kiwi ownership.

Denis Tegg: Officials muzzled on peak oil

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, September 5th, 2011 - 45 comments

Denis Tegg on National’s head in the sand Energy Strategy. All the official international warnings have been dismissed and the government has forced official to remove any reference to peak oil. The minister flatly refused to answer questions about the impact of peak oil on her fossil-fuel centred plan at the strategy launch.

Lest we forget

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, September 4th, 2011 - 42 comments

NRT: Some “strategy”

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, August 31st, 2011 - 39 comments

National’s Energy Strategy has been roundly criticised. The promises of more renewables and energy efficiency are more ‘aspirational’ fluff with no plan to actually get there. And, worse, the heart of the strategy works against sustainability and environmental responsibility – it’s all about drilling up and burning more oil. I/S at NoRightTurn explains.

Seeds of hope

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, August 21st, 2011 - 20 comments

This is the kind of innovation and intelligence that we are going to need in abundance to survive the medium to long term future…

Govt hits peak denial

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 pm, July 21st, 2011 - 89 comments

Should we be more angry or scared? Just read the first official government presentation on peak oil. The IEA says  conventional oil peaked in 2006 but our government offers only crude denialism and, paradoxically, blithe assurances that they’re ready. This is the kind of crap we used to see before we had 2 oil shocks in the past 4 years.

A real plan to save the world does exist

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, July 12th, 2011 - 112 comments

A feasible plan to power 100 percent of the planet with complete renewables exists. This plan excludes Nuclear and Biofuels, which the Scientific American authors of this plan also considered to be ultimately unsustainable technologies as well. Instead this plan revolves around Wind, Water and Solar – WWS

Frack off

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, July 3rd, 2011 - 41 comments

Bravo France, the first country in the world to ban fracking.  But for every step forward in this world, we seem to take two steps backwards…

Inflation credit and blame

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, April 18th, 2011 - 11 comments

Back in October last year the Nats, in a sea of bad news on the economy, latched on to the low inflation rate as something that they could claim “credit” for.  No doubt they will now be just as ready to accept blame for the worst inflation rate in 20 years.  Almost half of this figure is driven by the Nats’ GST increase…

Stop deep sea oil

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 12th, 2011 - 138 comments

Protest action by Greenpeace has disrupted prospecting activities in the Raukumara Basin by Brazilian petrochemical giant Petrobras.  John Key has come out swinging for Big Business, and wants to send in the navy to sort out the protesters.  But Greenpeace has it right.  We shouldn’t be drilling for oil…

Oil spike takes off

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, April 11th, 2011 - 36 comments

Get ready for another petrol increase this week. Last week, the Dubai crude benchmark, which most of New Zealand’s imports are priced of, shot up over 4% in NZD terms. Unless that rise reverses right away, petrol will have to rise past $2.25 a litre. We’re now pay $160m a week for oil imports – $2b a year more than a year ago.

Even the IMF is starting to get peak oil

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, April 10th, 2011 - 40 comments

Peak oil.  We’ve long had warnings from scientists and greens.  Right wing governments never listen to those.  But recently we’ve also had warnings from organisations that you might think that any government would pay attention to.  The IMF is the latest to sound the alarm.

A goal is not a strategy

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 pm, April 4th, 2011 - 26 comments

Last year, the New Zealand Institute lambasted the Nats’ ‘aspiration’ to catch Australia by 2025 with a report entitled ‘A goal is not a strategy‘. Did the Nats change? Of course not. Yesterday, their energy strategy was released. It offers some goals but is mute on how to get there. It’s not really a strategy at all, but it serves the Nats’ purpose nonetheless.

A dirty deal requires dirty lies

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 31st, 2011 - 10 comments

You know your opponent’s stand is dishonourable when they resort to spreading lies and promoting falsehoods about your position. The government’s Acting Energy and Resources Minister, Hekia Parata, has been caught out lying and spreading slurs that misrepresented her opponents’ position on deep sea oil drilling.

Fukushima radiation skyrockets

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 pm, March 27th, 2011 - 46 comments

Normally, we get 3.65 millisieverts of radiation a year. Increased cancer risk is associated with 100 millisieverts per year. Nuclear workers are only meant to get 100 millisieverts even in an emergency with protective clothing. Today, water in No 2 reactor was detected emitting 1 sievert per hour – and they’re not sure of the source.

Germany abandons nuclear power

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, March 25th, 2011 - 31 comments

The world will gradually be forced to abandon fossil fuels.  Fukushima (and Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island) show us that we can’t trust nuclear power.  It has to be green, renewable energy sources.  Can’t be done?  Germany thinks it can.

$1.80 petrol = recession

Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, March 14th, 2011 - 53 comments

The other day I was arguing $100 a barrel oil equals a global recession. I wanted be more precise: is there a certain price of petrol, above which the economy goes into recession? There is, and we’re way above it. The political upshot: the best way to promote growth is decreasing our oil dependence.

Meltdown

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 am, March 13th, 2011 - 186 comments

The Sendai Earthquake cut the power supply to the pumps at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. With no cooling water being pumped through the reactors, the nuclear fuel rods heated themselves until reactor 1 melted. But it should have been OK. The containment building should have kept the radiation from escaping. Then an explosion blew the containment building apart.

$100 oil spells recession

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 11th, 2011 - 19 comments

As we wait to see what Saudi Arabia’s ‘Day of Rage’ will bring and if it will send oil prices into the stratosphere, some economists, including our Reserve Bank Governor, are trying to pretend we’re not in the midst of an oil shock and there is no threat to the economy. They’re dead wrong.

Day of rage

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, March 7th, 2011 - 24 comments

You know things are bad when the AA is saying that high petrol prices are here to stay and there needs to be more investment in public transport. Global supply and demand is so tight that tiny disruptions are causing massive spikes. What if Saudi Arabia erupts?

Seismic events in Christchurch, food & fuel

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, February 28th, 2011 - 20 comments

Concurrently Christchurch’s second big quake, the effects of two other shocks are beginning to ripple through our country. Food prices are putting basics out of reach and this week will see another big petrol price hike. All three of these shocks will require us to pool our resources and redirect them to rebuilding resiliently.

The Domino recessions

Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, February 25th, 2011 - 67 comments

I read a book a while back that was set in the near future after what it called the ‘Domino recessions’ – successive oil shocks had created a series of economic and political crises, each one before the world had recovered from the previous recession. As the second oil shock in three years hits, that scenario looks to be coming to true.

Welcome to the new normal

Written By: - Date published: 11:43 pm, February 14th, 2011 - 53 comments

Look at the international media these days and what do we see? Oil prices rising due to peak oil. Extreme weather events due to climate change. Rising food prices due to peak oil increasing production costs, climate change destroying crops and resource depletion. And, in the most exposed countries, governments falling in revolution.

The big factor for election 2011 – petrol prices

Written By: - Date published: 5:50 pm, January 3rd, 2011 - 67 comments

I’ve been traveling around for Christmas/New Year’s. It hadn’t hit me until I drove about 1000kms around NZ just how much more expensive petrol has become. The extra cost is a shock when you fill up and it hurts the economy. I got wondering what the political impact is. The numbers suggest it matters a lot.