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." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.