Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The New Zealand government has banned offshore oil and gas exploration as part of its 30 year quest for 100% climate purity.
New Zealand bans all new offshore oil exploration as part of ‘carbon-neutral future’
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern says move ‘will essentially take effect in 30 or more years’ time’
The New Zealand government will grant no new offshore oil exploration permits in a move that is being hailed by conservation and environmental groups as a historic victory in the battle against climate change.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said her government “has a plan to transition towards a carbon-neutral future, one that looks 30 years in advance”.
“Transitions have to start somewhere and unless we make decisions today that will essentially take effect in 30 or more years’ time, we run the risk of acting too late and causing abrupt shocks to communities and our country.”
…
The opposition party slammed the government’s ban as “economic vandalism” and said it made no environmental sense.
“This decision will ensure the demise of an industry that provides over 8000 high-paying jobs and $2.5bn for the economy,” National’s energy and resources spokesman, Jonathan Young, said.
“This decision is devoid of any rationale. It certainly has nothing to do with climate change. These changes will simply shift production elsewhere in the world, not reduce emissions.”
…
I wonder if New Zealand has figured out exactly how they will switch to 100% renewables?
New Zealand is cold and mountainous, so solar power is a bit of a non-starter. The old Maori name for New Zealand Aotearoa means “Land of the Long White Cloud”. New Zealand frequently lives up to that name.
The mountains provide hydroelectric opportunities – New Zealand gets over 50% of their electricity from hydropower, though this percentage has been dropping as their economy races ahead of political will to build new hydro capacity.
Nuclear is not going to happen for the foreseeable future. New Zealand is rabidly anti-nuclear, they don’t even allow nuclear warships into their waters.
As one of the most volcanic regions in the world New Zealand has more geothermal capacity they could probably tap, though even in New Zealand suitable sites aren’t that common. When I visited Lake Taupo a few years ago, the locals I spoke to were not keen on the idea of drilling into the cap of their grumbling super volcano to tap more of its geothermal potential.
Wind power in New Zealand is an intriguing challenge. New Zealand has lots of high mountain peaks which might make good sites for wind power, but a lot of New Zealand’s geography is almost completely inaccessible, due to those same high mountain peaks and steep valleys. In winter New Zealanders really, really need energy to stay warm – much of New Zealand experiences substantial snowfall and deep frosts. Wind turbines do not work well when they are covered in ice.
Perhaps the New Zealand government has a secret power unicorn breeding farm they will shortly announce to the world.
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Like all foolhardy climate cuckaloos, they are using magical thinking. They will harness the energy from rainbows and pixie dust. Devil take the hindmost, and money is no object, when “the planet” is at stake. Virtue-signaling, planet-martyrdom is what matters to these morons.
Don’t worry. When things get ugly, fossil fuel will return. Cold, starving miserable people have no reason not to storm the castle. Leaders know this. They may wait a while, but they realize it’s suicidal to hang tight. Witness Europe.
The reality is that, based on the paleoclimate record and the work done with models, the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control There is co real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rational that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. There are plenty of reasons to be conserving on the use of fossil fuels but climate change is not one of them. Such actions will have no effect on climate and probably no effect on the amount of CO2 that mankind is adding to the atmosphere.
The biggest import category for NZ (by $) is petroleum and petroleum products.
The next largest category is vehicles and machinery.
NZ has more registered vehicles (99% ICE) than people (possibly displacing San Marino as world leader per head of population).
NZ can despoil the landscape with as many wind turbines as they like but will still be reliant on the warm nipple of mother oil for a long long time to come.
With NZ’s hills/mountains, valleys, and small townships, they NEED motor vehicles to do anything! Until the motor car, it was almost impossible to get between the small places – even the little rail transport they have required extensive tunnelling. And most development was on the coast, because they could ship (literally) between towns by water. I just cannot see intensification of their (excellent) electrical system for electric cars being affordable, or even possible.
“I just cannot see intensification of their (excellent) electrical system for electric cars being affordable, or even possible.”
Precisely because of the excellent electrical system, the availability of low cost renewable additional generation, and a network that is significantly underutilied at off peak times when domestic evs can charge, if the rest of the world can deliver the vehicles at even current prices they’ll be more cost effective than either ICEs or hybrids.
It’s different down here.
80% of energy for electricity generation is from renewable sources, by far the most important being hydro. Wind and geothermal contribution is minimal. Further development of wind is restricted through a public resistance to turbines – NIMBY.
The above stats do not cover the direct use of gas, the energy from which exceeds that of hydro. NG pipelines service all the major cities in the North Island. A major user of gas is the dairy industry which is the leading generator of export returns. Over the last 10 years there has been a significant shift towards NG or LPG appliances in homes. It is cheaper than electricity.
Gas powered power stations are extremely important as they contribute a major part of electricity generation and security of supply when dry weather depletes the hydro lakes.
All gas wells in NZ are past their maximum production and up until now has been a real concern that we will run out.
What is this decision about? The current Labour government needs the support of the NZ Green Party to retain power in parliament. They are in coalition. In my opinion nothing will change over the long term. NZ needs gas and will do so for a very long time yet. Thank goodness for democracy and the common sense of most Joe Blobs in the street. The Labour tenure is limited.
Regards
M
Well said Michael Carter .
This is what happens when the Green Party gets into government in a coalition .The labour Party never mentioned stopping oil and gas exploration in their manifesto .The population was swayed by a young woman and thought time for a change .The next election will be fought on this issue .
Absolute right Michael.
This move is at the instructions of Green Peace via the Green Party.
NZ has huge untapped gas resources. We’ll never be 100% renewable because the Greens oppose new hydro and oppose nuclear. Wind and solar are never going to make up the difference as they perform just as poorly as they do elsewhere in the world.
HELP NZ! I live down here. It is beautiful but full of leftist AGW propaganda daily spewed by schools, the government (carbon taxation!) and every TV news or talk radio station. The leftist policies will make NZ go broke … maybe in 30 years? “People” think electric cars are the answer. They are ANTI cutting down ANY trees. They are ANTI getting new water cleaning facilities (because a few trees need to be cut down) near where I live in Titirangi. I still enjoy living here but the LEFTIES in NZ – are NUTZ!!!!!!
no,no,no. Cut down trees, turn them into damp pellets and ship them to the UK to be burned. Very green we are told.
This is silly policy. It will increase carbon emissions because our hydrocarbon fuel for essential purposes (flying etc) will have to be be transported from distant suppliers. Plus loss of job, tax and export income. If you want to change encourage at the consumption end, not the supply end.
And there is a very imporftsnt lesson for those out there. This foolish policy is the result of the tail (the disappearing Green Party) the wagging dog in our MMP elected coalition government. Beware of MMP folks. It ain’t what it seems.
Especially when it is a modified version of MMP used in Germany. I recall when MMP was introduced in 1996 in NZ and my initial thoughts were “What could possibly go wrong with that?”
Now we know.
Supertankers are a very efficient transport method, especially if they orbit thru the Southern Ocean….
GreenPeace New Zealand has been pushing this for years and using propaganda, lies and junk science as their basis. I’ve been somewhat critical of GreenPeace NZ over the years each time they print lies and push their propaganda which usually results in nothing but personal insults from the mindless drones who can’t think for themselves. Even had the delight of having a meaningful discussion with one of the Cook et al 97% bollocks co authors who eventually left the debate with his tail between his legs when I started questioning his lack of morals and ethics. GreenPeace NZ executive director Russell Norman used to be leader of the Green Party until he quit a few years ago. Chances are he still has a lot of influence with the party now that they are in coalition power, you know the same people who have no problems admitting that their co-leader is a benefit fraudster. Even Russell’s public statement the other week about how GreenPeace was denied charity status was full of lies. Crooks abound here in NZ, especially in the liberal loony left.
Where you see crooks and corruption please do all you can to shine a light into their dark corners and encourage others to do so. In any enterprise including politics there are those with some morals left who just need a little push, a little help and a little encouragement to become useful whistleblowers. It also helps with recruitment for the other (the RIGHT) side!
Greenpeace, New Zealand
‘The Energy Future Is Here Report’
Available at:
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/reports/The-Future-is-Here-report
Another Greenpeace report might be available:
‘Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable New Zealand’, 2013, on the internet anyway.
Greenpeace New Zealand, June 8, 2010
Feature story:
‘The Energy [R]evolution’
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/energy-revolution-2010
“What will all this all look like in such a small country, with such a small working population.”
Oh such a teensy-weensy little … etc .. country … actually has about the same
population as the Republic of Ireland, and four times the land area … you never
hear TROI being described as tiny/little/etc
In fact it would be easy to concoct a long list of countries of much greater
size than NZ, and with many times the population, whose relative contributions
to Mankind have been insignificant or non-existent.
Which is not to deny that it is to be deeply regretted that NZ has fallen
into the hands of Ideologues.
You don’t have to remind people of how small Ireland is, because they already know it.
IMHO, this announcement is a nothing burger. NZ tends to be gas prone, there is little known oil, but given the 30 year window, they can always change it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_and_gas_industry_in_New_Zealand
In any case, just because they say NIMBY, doesn’t prevent importation of hydrocarbons from elsewhere, which will be in the cards anyway.
It would be like me announcing that in 30 years I will not give $1 million to charity–a meaningless pronouncement of something that was never going to happen anyway. Lol.
The oil and gas will still be there for future generations if they don’t explore for it now. Every cloud has a silver lining if you wait long enough.
Relax.
Nothing in there to prevent onshore exploration in the meantime. Its only new offshore exploration permits
and probably doesnt include those already issued.
30 years of Labour, Green, NZ First Coalition?
What an extrordinary concept.
Excuse me while I go over and pound my head on a brick wall
The thought of Winston Peters holding the balance of power is worrying.
This policy looks like a bone that’s been thrown to the Greens (who are not part of the coalition government; they merely guarantee supply) to keep them happy. Labour’s coalition partner, NZ First, is a more economically pragmatic outfit. The current oil explorers can continue exploring under present arrangements and renew their exploration licences should they wish to. It will take thirty years for any effect of the policy to be felt . . . by which time the government will have changed on three or four occasions, with most of the period seeing a centre-right party in power.
New Zealand may at the moment have a left-wing government, which means the odd whacko scheme gets a bit of playing time, but the bulk of the people are sensible and know how many beans make five.
I welcome the announcement . . . it’s the sort of thing that makes the likelihood of this being a one-term government get closer to a certainty.
Sorry Graphite but you are wrong .The green Party is part of the government .Three of them are ministers and one an under secretary .James Shaw ,Eugene Sage and Julie Anne Genter are Ministers .
Ministers outside Cabinet. Not part of the government.
word games
A case of Greenwash by the NZ labour party to appease their Green party coalition partner. It is also a case of nimbyism because NZ won’t stop importing the stuff. FYI NZ produces less than 1 percent of the world’s oil, but does produce a bit more natural gas.
They will loose high skill, high pay Oil and engineering jobs and replace with low paid low skill tourism jobs.
Incidentally New Zealand earns 17 percent of its export earnings from Dairy. But now earns more (about 18 percent of export earnings ) from its Tourism industry. Tourism is its bigger earner.
And how, you might ask, do the tourist get there? They fly or come on cruise ships which are both high emitters of CO2. But shhhhh let’s not mention that inconvenient truth.
The NZ job market took a nose dive on the election result and shows no sign of recovery. This latest stuff is just making things worse. The oil announcement is actually one of their less incompetent and insane actions, which us the really scary part.
How about if the rest of the world starts denying oil shipments to nations who believe it’s evil?
These climate lemmings who don’t bother with real science when making policy but rely on New York Banner style movements should be exposed for the hypocrites they are.
I’m gonna have some fun with this…Infratil may have realized what the former UPC/First Wind/ Sun Edison) cats (Longroad Energy Partners) were up to…
New Zealand, 2018:
Population 5,000,000
New Zealand, 2048:
Population 328,000
You didn’t factor in the climate refugees (sarc).
I was once lectured on the evils of oil and gas by an attendant at a gas station in New Zealand. I asked her how she got to work and where her paycheck came from.
The irony and hypocrisy were lost on her.
There is a pretty strong chance that the NZ government will be lucky (for them) to last a full term. It is a badly stitched together coalition rife with arrogance, ineptitude and some strong signs that indicate there may be of outright corruption.
This article gives a bit of a view why the whole sorry mess may collapse at any moment. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/103068858/photo-says-it-all-how-shane-jones-reacted-to-governments-oil-news
The press were besotted with Jacinda in the election, but a couple of horror months mean that this announcement (and a hike in petrol taxes) is their deflection mechanism from the corruption & incompetence stuff they were getting hammered with. Cindy’s fall from grace is similar to, but much faster than Canada’s True Doh’s.
What a great photo; politicians in a World of pain!!
No NZ Govts usually struggle on for their full 3 year tem even if they don’t achive much in the last years. anyway parliament is pretty much reduced to vaudeville anyway.
NZ does not have that many resources readily available. We have marvellous mountains but no access. We some geothermal but tourists need that for local heating. We have taniwha who guard our waterways and require tribal monetary feeding at planning permission time. The place is not tropical and sun is not plentiful for harvest. We rely on grass production, tourists, aluminium smelting, fertiliser and import substitution for foreign exchange.
We once lived in peace until the American Disease struck and achievers of year 7 level believed they could run the country. We have an electoral system that allowed a party with 7% of the votes to appoint a government substitute.
Now we are on the slippery slope to a wage price spiral with planned reduced economic output and unions having power to appoint the Prime Minister.. A regression to the 1970’s with an ex student politics Finance Minister. Very Gilbert & Sullivan but catastrophic.
Who do we consult in Venezuela for economic counselling?
Even if New Zealand finally slid beneath the waves, it would take a couple of weeks for people in Australia to notice, and longer still for the rest of the World.
We might get a decent rugby team if it does.
We started playing Rugby in NZ at 10 and by 14 we had a fair skill set.
Australia will not match NZ until they start their players younger IMHO.
How exploited are the current leases? Also new areas may be inacessible or uneconomic at present.
Governments and regulations can and do change within 5 years, let alone 30.
All this may be moot. Mr. Middleton?
Volcanoes and sediments with gas and oil do not mix. I doubt NZ had much to offer, amazed they had any at all, have no sedimentary deposits or shelves to explore, so that gas and oil rush was very brief. Sort of like declaring a dead horse dead.
It’s not the lack of successful oil and gas finds that is the problem — nobody’s hanging out for that longshot. It’s a cessation of spending by international corporations and the subsequent loss of supporting jobs that is causing the worry. The best bet is that a centre-right government will be elected next time around and the policy will be, as promised, discarded.
But while that’s the way the smart money will bet, it’s no shoo-in. I’d want a shade of odds before committing.
The centre-right government of the past nine years (three terms) was just barely right of centre. The PM was pale green at best, a believer in “climate change” and his government had plans to introduce electric cars into the official fleet.
He’s quit Parliament, as have most of his cohort, and the new kids have taken over. They’ve been making the right noises about Labour’s daft policy but whether that translates to practical action when they regain the Treasury benches is not set in concrete.
On the other hand, these companies have to take the long view.
If you have a volatile situation where the ban is on again, off again, every time a new government is elected. Many companies will decide that they can get a better return on their investments elsewhere.
Apparently laws make dreams come true. If so, they should make cancer illegal immediately. Join the cure.
the ban will apply to new permits and won’t affect the existing 22, some of which have decades left on their exploration rights and cover an area of 100,000 sq km.
The headline should read>>
New Zealand bans all new offshore oil exploration as part of ‘carbon-neutral future’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/12/new-zealand-bans-all-new-offshore-oil-exploration-as-part-of-carbon-neutral-future