energy

Categories under energy

Lies, damn lies, and rigged polling questions

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, October 15th, 2012 - 30 comments

In 2010 the largest protest for a generation in NZ marched down Queen St to oppose mining. But by squinting sideways at some rigged polling questions, industry advocates (aided and abetted by dumb headline writers) would have you believe that we the people support mining…

Granny hugs the corpse of neoliberalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, October 15th, 2012 - 59 comments

Here’s Granny Herald’s genius plan for economic development: if Meridian can get more money for its power elsewhere, it should let Tiwai Point close. 3,000 jobs would be lost. Invercargill and Bluff would effectively be killed. But, hey, market forces! Problem is, if Meridian only considers its narrow commercial interests, it ignores the cost to the country as a whole.

Maori unity and aspirations

Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, September 14th, 2012 - 126 comments

Yesterday’s national hui on water rights has resulted in the best possible outcome for Maori, a decision to present a unified front in the face of National’s divide and rule tactics.

Energy efficiency

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, September 11th, 2012 - 44 comments

If Europe can ban incandescent light bulbs, if America can legislate to require 54.5 MPG fuel efficient cars, why can’t New Zealand make some progress on energy efficiency?

Asset sales delayed

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, September 3rd, 2012 - 49 comments

Breaking news – the government is delaying the sale of assets until at least March next year.

Iraq and Big Oil

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, September 2nd, 2012 - 32 comments

Author Greg Muttitt writes on Iraq and Big Oil.  A very useful contribution to our understanding of the forces shaping the geopolitical landscape and the likely shape of the coming energy conflicts.

A Good Idea?

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, September 1st, 2012 - 156 comments

Planning permission has been sought to construct the world’s largest windfarm off the Scottish coast. Estimated to cost around 4.5 billion pounds and cover some 300 square km of ocean, if the project receives the green light, it will produce up to 40% of Scotland household power use. When compared to other forms of energy […]

Petrol hits record

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, August 22nd, 2012 - 210 comments

Z has set a new record for petrol prices with 91 up to $2.23. The others are expected to follow. We are in a new oil shock due to peak oil. The once unimaginable $2 a litre is now the low price. Ironically, the high dollar that is killing our exporters is protecting us from much higher petrol prices. So why is our government investing $12 billion on deepening our oil addiction?

Sell assets to avoid debt; take on debt to build motorways – huh?

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, August 16th, 2012 - 76 comments

So, let me get this straight. Debt is bad. So bad, in fact, that the Government is willing to sell assets that produce higher returns than its cost of borrowing to free up money and avoid taking on more debt. But this same Government is now planning to borrow to fill a $5 billion hole in its transport budget caused by its unneeded motorway projects.

Nats lied – power prices to rise

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, August 15th, 2012 - 36 comments

Minister after Minister denied it, but it turns out that common sense is right. Private power companies charge more. Privatisation surely means that prices will rise. Is it even news when this government lies these days?

140,000 for a clean energy future

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, July 25th, 2012 - 10 comments

The biggest petition to Parliament in 3 years was presented yesterday with Greenpeace’s 140,000 signature call for the Government to halt subsidisation of fossil fuels and invest in a clean energy future instead. 140,000 signatures is a remarkable achievement. Predictably, it got a nasty response from the Government. Their ugly attitude is turning off voters.

Stranded in suburbia

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, July 20th, 2012 - 30 comments

We know that more sprawl is actually twice as expensive to the rate- and tax-payer than increasing density within existing urban limits because of all the additional infrastructure that’s needed. But there’s added cost to the residents of the sprawl as well. Not just more time lost to commuting, but a more oil-dependent lifestyle that’s […]

A golden age that will never end

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, July 19th, 2012 - 106 comments

Whether you accept the evidence that the consumption of oil is currently peaking or not, it is undeniable that a) the world’s fossil fuel resources are finite and we’ve already consumed a large fraction of it and b) we won’t keep consuming evermore per day until it’s all gone. So, inevitably, the shape of human fossil fuel use is going to look like this.

One RoNS down

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, July 14th, 2012 - 32 comments

The Government has binned part of the Northern Wellington Corridor ‘Road of National Significance’ – the four-lane expressway between Otaki and Levin that would have cost $400m. The government’s not getting enough road tax revenue and they had already cut all other transport funding to the bone – so something had to give. But it’s just the start.

Buyer beware

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, July 11th, 2012 - 70 comments

Are you keen to buy shares in Mighty River Power with a dividend return of 4% pre-tax? You can beat that in the bank, and paying off debt is a far better use of money. But say you’re still keen. What about the threat of Mighty River losing water rights or having to pay for them – will you buy in with that unresolved? Only nutters would take Key’s offer with that up in the air.

A rock and a hot place

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 5th, 2012 - 49 comments

Yesterday National pollster David Farrar excitedly quoted from a George Monbiot article saying peak oil isn’t happening. Two problems: 1) Farrar omitted to quote the bits of the article saying that the flipside of no peak oil would be runaway climate change. 2) the report Monbiot’s article is based on is written by an oil executive who claims we’ll stumble on endless cheap oil and all live happily ever after.

Iwi and the riverbeds

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, July 3rd, 2012 - 15 comments

The only remaining possible legal threat to the Nats’ plans to sell off our power companies is a Treaty based claim to water rights or riverbeds.

It’s for efficiency

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, June 26th, 2012 - 10 comments

Now we learn that directors’ fees are set to double after National sells or assets. Who pays for the fat-cats to get twice the cream for the same work? We do. Through higher power prices. It’s just another cost of privatisation that we all pay – despite the fact that Treasury reckons 95% of us won’t buy shares. No wonder 100,000 of us have signed the referendum petition already.

Undeniable logic

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, June 22nd, 2012 - 39 comments

Lose our assets, get higher power prices

Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, June 20th, 2012 - 48 comments

Efficient market hypothesis

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, June 20th, 2012 - 87 comments

Bill English has attacked the MED numbers showing that private electricity companies are 12% more expensive than public ones saying that argument assumes “that hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders are systematically paying more for electricity than they could?”. Um… Has English heard of Powerswitch? That multi-million dollar government campaign is based on exactly that premise.

People make a mess

Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, June 6th, 2012 - 15 comments

Like the character, Nick Taylor, in the movie, ‘Thank You For Smoking’, self-styled “Oil lobbyist”, David Robinson is a highly paid apologist for the fossil fuel lobby. But even he says he wouldn’t want fracking in his neighbourhood.

Rock and a hard place

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, May 11th, 2012 - 20 comments

We’re in a second mini-recession/stall since the Great Recession began in 2008. As in 2010, oil prices ramped up and growth petered out. Now, oil prices have dropped back a little. But the moment the economy shows mild signs of life, they’ll be back up again. Short periods of weak growth, oil price shocks, recessions – sounds like the cycle peak oil economists have predicted for years.

$5 a litre petrol, here we come

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 3rd, 2012 - 94 comments

Last week, the IMF warned that oil prices will double over and above inflation in the next decade. The Greens crunched the numbers and say that means we’ll be paying $5 a litre for petrol in 2022. If it wasn’t clear before, it is now. A handful of white elephant highways is a poor use of $14 billion, especially when petrol is only getting more expensive.

Asset sales mean power price rises

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, April 25th, 2012 - 79 comments

Molly Melhuish was one of dozens of oral submitters on the Privatising Your Assets Mixed Ownership Model Bill yesterday – all opposed. Her research shows the average price of power from a private provider is 3.31 c/kWh higher than from an SOE. Contact Energy’s boss says private investors need prices to rise even more. The implication is privatisation will remove the shackles.

Earth Hour

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 pm, March 31st, 2012 - 31 comments

OK – so we’re a bit late with this – but it’s Earth Hour, 8:30 – 9:30pm NZ time.

Farrar discovers peak oil, nearly

Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, March 20th, 2012 - 101 comments

Barack Obama will be breathing a sigh of relief after David Farrar endorsed his call to end oil subsidies. It seems the 3rd oil price spike in 5 years is getting the attention of even the Right. Something, they’ve got an inkling, is wrong and rising petrol prices are here to stay. Pity that, on the cusp of revelation, Farrar opts for the security blanket of neoclassical economics.

Iran

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 4th, 2012 - 107 comments

Israel and the US have both been ratcheting up their rhetoric against Iran in the past few months and an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities looks highly likely. Just the other day, Obama told Iran to stop its nuclear programme or else adding, “I don’t bluff”. I really, really hope he’s bluffing. Because Iran’s ready to make an attack on it cost the world big time.

Ryall confirms asset stripping on the cards

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, March 2nd, 2012 - 136 comments

So, National wants to re-assure us that, when they sell our assets against our will, they’ll keep 51% and control. But, um, minority shareholders have rights and private boards have to maximise profits ahead of the national interest. If they decide to sell off the dams later they can, and the Nats won’t stop them.

MoT reveals massive budget shortfall from peak oil

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, February 4th, 2012 - 36 comments

Almost missed among all the blacked out paragraphs of the Transport Briefing to the Incoming Minister are 2 interesting graphs. While not explicitly mentioning peak oil, the graph of the National Land Transport Fund shows a massive shortfall in revenue in a ‘high oil price, low growth’ scenario. The other shows how low-quality National’s highway spending is.

NRT: Climate change: Cross-purposes

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, February 3rd, 2012 - 48 comments

No Right Turn has a look at two of the incoming minister briefings impacting on climate change. They are incoherent and it is clear that neither ministry talks to the other. If it wasn’t affecting a important long term issue, it’d be as funny as a Yes Minister episode. But since it does, it just highlights the growing incoherence of this incompetent government and their increasing politicization of the civil service.