Ryan Bridge: On New Zealand's energy crisis

Resource and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones has given quite a fiery speech in the House taking aim at the Greens over Labour's oil and gas ban, calling out their opposition to using Kiwi coal. 

"We can power up New Zealand by using our domestic coal resources. But that party would rather see New Zealanders thrown on the unemployment scrap heap as we've witnessed this week. They would rather see people cold, they would rather see people in their retirement years too afraid to put the jug on or the sleeping blanket just so they can cover themselves in an ideological blanket of piety and self-righteousness." 

That was not scripted, that was just Shane Jones going hell for leather in the House. A very enjoyable speech, he's easy to listen to, isn't he? 

He makes a point, doesn't he, about the workers who are being affected by all of the closures that are happening around the country at the moment. 

I flicked off an email to Methanex yesterday because they've shuttered operations at their plant until October and I just wanted to check are you definitely going to reopen? 

They said yes, we are looking forward to restarting operations in November. So that is good, but they do say this about our current electricity system, and I think it just sums it up. 

"Our highly renewable electricity sector is increasingly reliant on intermittent renewable power generation which needs to be supported by thermal generation to provide energy security when the rain doesn't fall, the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine." 

During the last three years, they've operated at reduced rates or shut plants over high electricity demand periods during winter to ensure there's enough gas for everyone to go around. 

Now, this is the interesting part: 

"While the government has recently signalled positive policy changes like reversing the offshore oil and gas ban, we believe additional support policies are urgently needed for New Zealand's incumbent upstream companies such as OMV, Todd and Greymouth to help improve confidence and enable the development of future gas supplies to prevent the deindustrialisation of our economy." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Shane Jones has given quite a fiery speech. This is
the general debate and the House fired up, and he
was taking aim at the Greens in particular. Of course,
he's the Resources and Associate Energy Minister taking aim at
the Greens over well what was essentially Labours oil and
gas band and he's calling out their opposition to using

(00:20):
key we coal.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
We can cower up New Zealand by using our domestic
coal resources. But that party would rather see New Zealand
as thrown on the unemployment scrap keep as we've witnessed
this week. They would rather see people cold. They would
rather see people in their retirement years too afraid to
put the jug on or the sleeping blanket, just so

(00:45):
they can cover themselves in an ideological blanket of piety
and self righteousness.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
And that wasn't it. That was not scripted. That was
just Shane Jones just going for a healthful leather in
the house. A very enjoyable speech. He's easy to listen to,
his nichechane anyway. He makes a point, doesn't he about
the workers who are being affected by all of the
closures that are happening around the country at the moment.
I flicked off an email to Methanex yesterday because they've

(01:15):
shutted operations at their plant until October, and I just
wanted to check are you definitely going to reopen and
they said yes, we're looking forward to restarting operations in November,
so that is good. But they do say this about
our current electricity system, and I think it just sums
it up. Our highly renewable electricity sector is increasingly reliant

(01:35):
on intermittent renewable power generation, which needs to be supported
by thermal generation to provide energy security when it doesn't
when the rain doesn't fall, the wind doesn't blow, or
the sun doesn't shine. During the last three years, they've
operated at reduced rates or shut plants over high electricity
demand periods during winter to ensure there's enough gas for
everyone to go around. Now this is the interesting part.

(01:57):
While the government has recently signaled positive policy changes like
reversing that offshore oil and Basket gas band, we believe
additional support policies are urgently needed for New Zealand's incumbent
upstream companies such as OMV, Todd and Graymouth to help
improve confidence and enable the development of future gas supplies

(02:21):
to prevent what they call the de industrialization of our economy.
So anyway, we're hoping to have them on the show
actually next week, just for a chat about exactly what
those things are that they want changed.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
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Speaker 1 (02:39):
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