Fox in a henhouse

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, March 6th, 2025 - 9 comments
Categories: climate change, national, same old national, science, simeon brown, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Te Tiari Piako Pungao/Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has an important role.

Its purpose is to mobilise New Zealanders to be world leaders in clean and clever energy use.

And its desired outcome is a sustainable energy system that supports the prosperity and wellbeing of current and future generations.

It achieves this by, among other activities, demonstrating and scaling up energy efficient technologies and renewable energy use.

In these times of climate crisis you would think that ensuring it was operating as efficiently as possible was rather important.

Which is why two recent appointments has raised so many eyebrows.

It has been revealed that one of the appointments, John Carnegie, was not shortlisted, added onto the shortlist by Simeon Brown, not recommended for appointment but appointed anyway.

And Carnegie is a fossil fuel lobbyist who has previously criticised EECA’s role in giving out grants helping companies get off coal and gas because it was shrinking demand for fossil fuels and who called grants for moving to electric boilers “state-subsidised demand destruction”.

From Eloise Gibson at Radio New Zealand:

A top government minister personally added a fossil fuel lobbyist to the shortlist of candidates to help govern the country’s main energy-saving agency.

Simeon Brown then overrode official advice to appoint the lobbyist to the role.

The former Energy Minister put John Carnegie on the board of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) in December, despite Carnegie not making the cut during interviews.

Officials managing the recruitment process twice tried to exclude the fossil fuel lobbyist from the running, according to documents released to RNZ under the Official Information Act – first after an initial screening, and a second time after Brown instructed them to interview Carnegie.

…

Carnegie is chief executive of Energy Resources Aotearoa, formerly the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association and has been a leading voice for the repeal of the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration as well as support and subsidies to make fossil fuel drilling more attractive.

Initially, Carnegie was on a long list of potential options whom recruiters at the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) approached to apply.

He applied and was considered, but officials decided the oil and gas spokesperson should not progress to the shortlist.

However after viewing MBIE’s shortlist of candidates, Brown told officials not to interview anyone on it.

Instead, he instructed them to interview Carnegie and Goel.

Goel’s appointment was even stranger. Brown was told that Goel was not suitable for the position but appointed anyway.

What next? A Phillip Morris representative on Health NZ? Richard Prebble on the Waitangi Tribunal (yes I know this actually happened).

This has US Republican sabotage vibes about it. It is almost as if they rely on the same advisors.

9 comments on “Fox in a henhouse ”

  1. Ffloyd 1
    6 March 2025 at 2:40 pm

    How very Trumpian! …Brown wags tail, woof,woof. Scary how the CoCs have the same guide book as trump and vance. Doing a Demo job on NZ, and no, that is not shorthand for Democracy. I doubt they could spell the word.

    Reply
  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2
    6 March 2025 at 5:21 pm

    Does nefarious villains cover them? it could seem like some kind of strange Vaudeville act…..excepting its in Real Time. And they are destroying a Country : (

    Reply
  3. thinker 3
    6 March 2025 at 5:43 pm

    Not to mention the hold the evangelical churches seem to have.

    Despite (I think it was) Luxon saying of Tamaki, essentially, This time he's crossed the line, (…compared to previous transgressions/what line/whose line?),

    I'm watching to see how quickly the assault on the Te Atatu Community Centre reaches the prosecution stage and whether the self-proclaimed instigator is appropriately held to account, given the crackdown on violent crime. Or, will things turn out the way they did at the Domain protests and the occupation of the state highway?

    There's a huge voting block in the collective evangelical communities, I keep thinking.

    All IMHO

    Reply
  4. Incognito 4
    6 March 2025 at 8:34 pm

    This is entirely in line with the flock of foxes running amok in the Beehive. They’ve been neo-authoritarians from the day they took over the reins and even before then. If this is what New Zealanders really want then they should renew their mandate next year.

    Reply
  5. Bearded Git 5
    6 March 2025 at 10:24 pm

    Even in the UK they have ended drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea and have been praised by Greenpeace for this.

    What planet is the NZ government on?

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/05/ban-on-new-drilling-confirmed-as-ministers-consult-on-north-sea-clean-energy-future?CMP=share_btn_url

    Reply
  6. PsyclingLeft.Always 6
    7 March 2025 at 8:46 am

    MS, thankyou for leading this with a Post. Like yourself, I see NAct1 as not only pouring resources into their War on Nature…its a part of their Total War on all areas of NZ.

    Ive said before that I think the damage NAct1 are doing will take a very long time to mitigate. Some of it..maybe never. All the more reason to Stand Up. Fight Back !

    Reply

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