energy

Categories under energy

Whose interests are the Nats working for?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, April 22nd, 2013 - 82 comments

Why are National and the Right pitching a fit at the prospect of the Crown and foreign institutions losing superprofits when that’s the price of households and businesses getting lower power prices? Real businesses are looking forward to paying less for power but National says ‘stuff them, we’re looking out for the Crown’s stealth tax and Origin Energy’s profits’.

The “socialist” vs capitalist PR war: NZ Power

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, April 21st, 2013 - 123 comments

The Key government and its allies are playing the “red scare” gambit, the Greens get to the heart of the reason for NZ Power, Parker goes Third Way, while Bernard Hickey and Matt McCarten weigh in to support the (alleged) “socialist” NZ Power policy. Bomber Bradbury adds some words of caution. [updated title]

Rentiers on notice

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, April 20th, 2013 - 36 comments

The Green/Labour NZ Power announcement is a clear warning to the owners of electricity companies that their days of rentier profits are coming to an end. Joyce cries for the declining value of their shares but that fall tells us that the market thinks Labour and the Greens will govern, NZ Power will work, and it will knock hundreds of millions off power bills.

Reaction to NZ power

Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, April 20th, 2013 - 98 comments

The Labour / Green electricity proposals picked up very significant support from Vector CEO Simon Mackenzie. Other analysts and commentators have weighed in with support, while some of the reaction from the business community has been (like the Nats) bordering on the unhinged.

Poverty Watch – Special edition on fuel poverty

Written By: - Date published: 7:06 am, April 20th, 2013 - 6 comments

Given the drama surrounding the Labour / Green electricity policy it seems appropriate for this week’s Poverty Watch to explore the topic of fuel poverty in NZ. It’s a killer, and it’s long past time that something was done.

Do the lights ever go out on Planet Key?

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 pm, April 19th, 2013 - 33 comments

John Key says that the Labour-Green Power policy is “barking mad” and will take people back to the power cuts of the 1970s.  Another John Key brainfade, or just being “clueless”? I look at power cuts and fuel poverty since the 1990s.

Nats panicking on NZ Power

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, April 19th, 2013 - 347 comments

National’s reaction to the Labour/Greens NZ Power announcement was telling. They panicked. There was no genuine critique, just ‘won’t someone think of the shareholders’. The funniest bit was when National tried to say that it is a North Korean idea. In truth, it’s South Korea that has a Single Buyer like NZ Power. And their power prices have fallen while ours have risen.

NZ Power

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, April 18th, 2013 - 223 comments

At noon today Labour and the Greens jointly announced new energy policies. “NZ Power” is big and it’s bold. It will completely restructure the way the electricity sector is run, and result in lower power prices for both domestic and business consumers.

Key’s power price record

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, April 17th, 2013 - 78 comments

Spooked by tomorrow’s joint announcement by Labour and the Greens on policy to cut power prices, National is trying to claim they have solved the problem. Get real. In the past year, household electricity prices rose an average of 5%, that’s over six times the rate of general inflation. By my reckoning, the average power bill has risen 16%, or about $300 a year under Key.

Labour’s electricity reforms will be bold

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 59 comments

A joint Labour / Green announcement on plans for the electricity sector will be made on Thursday. My prediction is that the plan will be bold.

Caveat emptor 2

Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, April 15th, 2013 - 104 comments

Labour’s put out a release saying power prices are too high and “signalling that the future Labour Government will make changes to the sector so that New Zealanders considering purchasing shares in Mighty River Power, which go on sale tomorrow, are aware of that before investing”. In other words, ‘we’re gonna cut power prices, and the electricity companies’ profits will be hit’.

Caveat emptor

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, April 3rd, 2013 - 15 comments

Analysts are apparently ‘not worried’ about the impact of the increasingly likely-looking closure of Tiwai Point on the price of electricity and, hence, on the value of the assets National is trying to hock. A 12% reduction is all one analyst sees in Mighty River’s price is Meridian floods the market with some of the cheapest power going. The analysts have missed the politics.

Rio Tinto ups the ante

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, April 2nd, 2013 - 166 comments

Our “let’s make a deal” PM is outclassed on this one. I actually have some sympathy this time, the government is between a rock and a hard place. But while most of us worry about Southland, I suspect the Nats’ concerns will be a little closer to home…

The Sexing of Politics

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 pm, March 30th, 2013 - 59 comments

Today, Fran O’Sullivan  argues that Key has lost his edge & his ministers are using dubious tactics in dealing with Rio Tinto over Tiwai Point. O’Sulllivan implies that sharp, savvy and successful deal-making & leadership are masculine qualities.

Pacific Renewables

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 25th, 2013 - 21 comments

There is a summit on renewable energy in the Pacific happening in Auckland.  McCully acknowledges climate change, the PM focuses on investment opportunities, the EU hopes for clean energy to aid poverty reduction. What’s best for Pacific island communities?

What a surprise

Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, March 21st, 2013 - 12 comments

Government MPs vote down a request for an enquiry into Solid Energy.

NRT: Insanity

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, March 19th, 2013 - 7 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on the insanity of scrapping the home insulation programme.

Has John Key jumped the shark?

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 18th, 2013 - 50 comments

Micky savage of Waitakere News looks at John Key’s involvement in the Solid Energy fiasco. National’s undeserved reputation as sound economic managers takes another hit…

The big dry

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, March 13th, 2013 - 77 comments

We’re now experiencing the worst drought in the North Island in recorded history. It comes just five years after the previous severe drought and there was a lesser one in between. Let’s not beat around the bush, it’s climate change. Bill English came very close on Monday to admitting that climate change induced-droughts will make bailouts unsustainable.

You pays your money & you takes your chances

Written By: - Date published: 10:53 am, March 9th, 2013 - 97 comments

Analysts are talking about risks of investing in Mighty River Power in the media today. Weather, electricity demand, overseas expansion. I’ll tell you what would make me think twice: everyone acknowledges the power companies over charge. Right now, the government has 400m reasons a year not to do anything about it. But that’s about to change.

Strategic blunder

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, March 6th, 2013 - 40 comments

Amidst the froth of predatory “excitement” about the sale of our power generation assets, it was refreshing to read in The Herald yesterday a single lone voice who was thinking long term.

Body on Mighty River

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, February 22nd, 2013 - 14 comments

body-on-mighty-river300

The green economy

Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, February 11th, 2013 - 90 comments

There’s a lot of talk about the benefits of moving to a green, sustainable economy but details on what that looks like in practice in New Zealand are often frustratingly thin. Greenpeace is releasing a report – The Future is Here – that puts meat on the bones. The main thing is getting us off expensive, polluting, imported oil and on to clean, local energy.

Time for Joyce to end the pipe-dream

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, January 16th, 2013 - 62 comments

The oil and gas industry employs fewer people than have lost their jobs in manufacturing every 4 months under National. Yet, Joyce devotes all his efforts to doing favours for the foreign oil companies and ignores our local manufacturers. Now, another of the foreign oil companies has packed their bags. It’s a reminder that a […]

Upcoming talk on Canadian student uprising

Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, January 11th, 2013 - 6 comments

This Sunday hip hop artist and political activist Darius Mirshahi will be speaking in Auckland about the political situation in Canada and how the left are organising to resist Neo-Liberalism. Later he will be performing material which has lead to attention from Glen Beck and the Canadian police.

If

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, December 20th, 2012 - 221 comments

If you and I were told that (variously) our sons and daughters, grandchildren, nieces and nephews were going to be killed tomorrow, would I be right to suspect that we might sit up and take notice?

Well done

Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, December 18th, 2012 - 83 comments

This is one of a series of posts I hope to write over the summer based to some extent or other on a recent presentation by Kevin Anderson: Professor of Energy and Climate Change, University of Manchester, Tyndall Centre.

2 storms and a rocket

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 14th, 2012 - 42 comments

With the GFC, changing climate and resource depletion, the struggles of the powerless get over-looked.  Asia-Pacific has been described as the focal point of a new cold war. Storms in Samoa and the Philippines, a rocket launch from North Korea. How should we respond?

AA wakes up to Peak Oil

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, December 6th, 2012 - 49 comments

“It can only get worse from here.” – that’s the Automobile Association’s numbers man on petrol prices. It’s quite a revelation because, until now, the AA has been firmly part of the dinosaur establishment that has been insisting petrol prices will ‘soon’ fall to ‘normal’. Mark Stockdale also gets the logical response to peak oil – stop building sprawl, reduce consumption.

Nats get desperate on asset sales

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, October 24th, 2012 - 64 comments

The Nats have decided to try to lean on the judiciary to get asset sales handled the way they want. The Judge is ‘Red Ron’. The Court shouldn’t try to decide water rights at a level of general principle. The Maori Council mustn’t get legal aid. The case should be kicked straight up to the Supreme Court and settled before March. It’s not working. It’s not going to work. And the costs are mounting. Updated

Treasury’s spin fail on electricity numbers

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, October 16th, 2012 - 2 comments

Treasury is trying to tell us that private power companies don’t charge more than SOEs to justify privatisation. Of course, a moment’s thought tells you that private owners, with higher costs of capital, need larger profits than public ones. And private owners always complain the SOEs don’t charge enough. Moreover, Treasury’s spin is a complete fail.