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‘Backwards bandwagon’ not for us
Saturday, September 22, 2012
At the New Zealand Petroleum Summit this week, Energy Minister Phil Heatley dismissed protestors: “They have concerns but they are not really middle-class New Zealand,” he said, as if middle-class New Zealanders are all who matter.

For better or worse I’m one of them, and like many other unextreme people I am unconvinced by the Government’s oil and gas plans.

Also this week, hundreds of cubic metres of Taranaki soil was so contaminated by fracking at the flagship Kapuni well it had to be trucked out of the region. The contamination occurred from unlined pits used to store fracking waste water.

A number of sites have been identified and Shell Todd Oil Services manager Rob Jager admits the level of contamination below the surface is unknown, and monitoring wells are being drilled to check water quality in the area.

Trust us, we know what we’re doing?

The Resource Management Act is currently under review and Government Ministers have suggested that petroleum projects “in the national interest” could be approved by a national entity rather than local councils.

There is nothing that will rile middle-New Zealand voters more than having local representation on important issues taken away from them.

Summit attendees heard that the oil and gas industry would like to “embed itself in the New Zealand psyche”, as agriculture has done. That may not be easily done — the New Zealand psyche is characterised by genuine innovation, finding creative solutions and not suffering fools.

Do we really want to be the last in the world to jump on a backwards bandwagon?

Yes, energy today is complicated, and yes we need a realistic plan to transition to a low carbon economy, but like most Kiwis I think that anything that makes a quick buck with extreme costs down the track isn’t a good investment.

The elephant in the room is of course climate change and the sooner local and central government make that their top priority the better.

MELUA WATSON
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