Letters to the Editor: NZ First needs to explain what evidence justifies its $1 billion oil and gas surveying plan
NZ First plan for oil and gas an expensive gamble
I never thought I would find myself agreeing with the Greens, but their opposition to New Zealand First’s proposal to spend $1 billion surveying New Zealand’s offshore oil and gas potential is entirely justified.
This is not $1b to produce energy. It is $1b to look for resources that may not exist in commercially viable quantities.
Even if significant deposits were found, developing them would take years and require billions more, while the world continues to move towards cheaper renewable energy.
Winston Peters invokes Norway, but Norway’s oil wealth arose from discoveries made more than half a century ago, in an entirely different energy market.
Spending $1b hoping New Zealand might repeat that history is not an energy strategy – it is an expensive gamble.
New Zealand already has abundant solar, wind, hydro and geothermal resources.
Investing that billion dollars in generation, storage and grid resilience would create actual energy capacity, reduce our dependence on imported fuel and move us closer to genuine energy self-sufficiency.
Before taxpayers fund a billion-dollar treasure hunt, NZ First should explain what evidence justifies it, who really stands to benefit and why this is a better investment than the energy infrastructure we already know we need.
Mark Crouch, Hamilton.
Well done, Ryan
What an incredible victory for Ryan Fox, winning the British Open, making him Champion Golfer of the Year. A stunning birdie putt on the 18th, among the best players in the world, sealed it in cool, calm, collected style – absolutely brilliant!
Congratulations Ryan; New Zealand is so very proud.
Janette Anderson, Paeroa.
Golfing success
As a person who hacks his way around a golf course, one can only be awed by Ryan Fox’s win at the British Open.
Golf is a game that can be frustrating, rewarding, but seldom beaten. To win such a tournament, one not only needs ability but also the mental agility to be able to stay focused for four days in a row and then do it all again the next week.
Golf is such a game with its highs and lows that one believes that there should be a helpline for us amateurs to convince us the sun will come up again next Saturday.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
Right solar decisions
Leaving aside the issue of environmental aesthetics, the photo in Jamie Gray’s article (July 18) of the Tauhei Solar Farm with solar panels extending across what was once food-producing land should raise some wider discussion.
As a former agricultural engineer, I am aware of the contending arguments. On one hand, I strongly believe that solar power is essential for electricity security. We need to do more as a country to include solar panels on new buildings and retrofit old buildings. In urban areas, carparks should be covered by solar panels. On farms, hay barns, implement/shearing sheds and farm dairies are buildings that should be retrofitted.
On the other hand, I am concerned that solar farms are being erected on productive food-producing land. This is not conducive to our food security and our agricultural-led export sector.
Sure, some will argue that solar farms are dual-purpose, producing “green” energy and food.
However, running a few sheep under the panels is not really achieving optimal production. They are, in effect, just convenient “lawnmowers”. This is not in the same class of dual-purpose farming and green energy that we see with wind turbines, where food production is less affected, if at all.
While this is not a call to stop solar farms, it is a call for greater thought and consideration. All decisions have consequences, intended or otherwise.
Already, we are losing good productive farmland to the perverse logic of carbon forestry, uncontrolled urban sprawl and inert lifestyle blocks. It would be unfortunate if solar farms joined this trend.
Dr Murray Boardman, Dunedin.
Power to the people
Why isn’t it mandatory for solar panels to be installed on all new builds, whether they be commercial or residential buildings?
The suggestion of loans, in my view, is only putting a heavy financial burden on people.
Dennise Cook, Torbay.
Call that decorum?
Lorraine Kidd states in the letters to the editor (July 19) that Paul Henry has decorum.
He is an entitled man with money and connections. He has made comments considered racist about people in office who are Indian or of Indian origin. Can you call that decorum? It is just the opposite. No class. No charisma. He apologises and moves on.
Now he is bored and is spinning his web into politics.
Nishi Fahmy, Avondale.
Too many cooks ...
What if you are the cook, on the Cook, crossing the Cook?
Geoff Leckie, Flatbush.
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