Election 2011 Two-facedness - Saving money good - saving fuel bad

All of the political parties agree New Zealand needs a long-term savings and investment plan . These elections there have been major policy announcements on Kiwisaver, reducing debt and the age of eligibility for National Superannuation. Saving money good.

But when confronted with arguably a more serious and immediate threat to New Zealand's economy, national well-being and security -- namely our dangerous exposure to oil price shocks, and oil supply disruptions and shortages, - all the main parties fail to articulate a coherent long-term plan to lower our dependence on ever more expensive imported oil. Saving fuel bad.

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Officials Muzzled on Peak Oil?

The government has finally released its Energy Strategy. There are cosmetic changes from the Draft version but it's no surprise that the final Strategy continues to completely ignore the threat of peak oil. 

There were many submissions, including my own, which detailed the raft of recent reports from oil and energy experts, think tanks and government institutions which are all pointing to an imminent supply and oil price crunch. And in 2009 government officials themselves gave strong warnings to Ministers. So since 2009, have the officials been muzzled?

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Oil Royalties a Mirage?

Beside the release of the government's final Energy Strategy was a report from Woodward Partners purporting to estimate the potential royalty income from existing, and yet to be discovered oilfields.

Business cheerleaders such as the National Business Review typically took the most extreme best case guesstimate and trumpeted the report with headlines of a $13 billion bonanza. But if they had bothered to actually read the report they would find that quite different story emerges.

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New Zealand's oil security. How dependent are we on oil imports?

New Zealand imports 97% of its oil. Oil is the lifeblood of our economy. So a vital question must be -- how vulnerable is New Zealand to oil supply shocks? -- Whether from short term disruption, or due to an on-going and perhaps permanent decline in world oil exports?

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UK Government to Develop Oil Shock Response Plan - When Will NZ ?

UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has agreed to develop an 'Oil Shock Response Plan', following a meeting with the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES).

Specifically, Huhne agreed that the UK government and ITPOES would work together on peak oil threat assessment and contingency planning.

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Obama’s Oil Plan Picks Winners – We Can Do That

Last week President Obama released a new Oil Strategy. Like every President before him since Richard Nixon, Obama's aim is to reduce America’s dependence on imported oil. The plan openly picks winners. The strategy has been widely criticised for failing to address the scale and urgency of the end of cheap and abundant oil. But at least it’s a plan, which is 100 steps ahead of where we are here in New Zealand, -  a nation even more dependent on imported oil than the USA.  The New Zealand government has no plan other than to leave it to the market.

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Government’s Energy Strategy -- Grade F for Fail

The government has mistakenly released its Draft Energy Strategy, which is still to be signed off by Cabinet. Despite hundreds of public submissions it remains almost word for word identical with the version published in July 2010.

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